Aspiring actors get a leg up with UNLV film program

Monday, June 19, 2006 | 7:03 a.m.

Nate Bynum isn't here to make you a movie star.

He didn't give up his tenured position at Mississippi State University to send you straight to the A-list. Instead he'd rather train you to make a living acting in film and television, even if that means commercials, which is how Bynum got his start.

His Acting for the Camera program at UNLV graduated its first class of four students in May. The creation of the four-year curriculum was collaborative effort by students, staff and Bynum, whose film credits include "Miss Congeniality 2: Armed & Fabulous" and "Benji: Off the Leash!" The program is something he's been working on since arriving at UNLV in 1999 when Jeff Koep, dean of the College of Fine Arts, handed him the keys and said, "Find your own niche."

"The film industry was starting to make its way to Las Vegas. We're so close to Hollywood," Koep said. "It's one more tool that our actors need. It's nice to say, 'I just want to do Shakespeare and the classics,' but it's also nice to eat."

Koep says adding Emmy Award-winning producer Robert Benedetti to the theater department brings in another stage professional who has "taken it to the screen."

Acting for the Camera looks at the business side of the industry and offers courses on commercial acting, film acting and soap operas.

Actors Matt Damon and Orlando Jones have talked with students, some of whom pick up work in local projects.

Other instructors include Clarence Gilyard ("Walker, Texas Ranger," "Left Behind") and Michael Tylo ("Guiding Light," "All My Children."

Bynum, who is teaching this week at the International Thespian Festival in Lincoln, Neb., said he filters out students who want "reality TV or MTV success" because those students aren't going to stay the full course.

"I'm more practical," Bynum said. "If it's about money, just go to Hollywood and see what it's like."