Brad Rowe

While he bears some resemblance to another screen actor named Brad [Pitt], blond Midwesterner Brad Rowe made an auspicious debut as Gabriel, a hunky waiter-musician who is asked to model for a gay photographer, in Tommy O'Haver's lightweight romance "Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss" (1998). The son of a conservative father and "artsy-liberal" mother, the actor had a few trepidations about undertaking a role with homoerotic overtones but the resulting praise has only boosted his fledgling career. The iconoclastic Rowe spent his junior year of college in Seville, Spain and stayed on for another year, working as a goodwill ambassador for the US State Department and indulging in flamenco lessons, guitar playing and even a run with the bulls in Pamplona.

After graduating from the University of Wisconsin with a degree in economics, he headed for L.A. and the usual round of auditions and classes. Rowe was cast in the as yet unreleased thriller "Invisible Temptation" (filmed in 1996) before accepting the role of Gabriel. Since his profile has risen with the success of "Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss" (which was screened at Sundance), the actor landed a recurring role of the dim-bulb intern (who happens to be the nephew of the station manager) on the NBC comedy "NewsRadio" and was cast alongside Eric Roberts and Sam Shepard in the 1998 TNT Western "Purgatory".