Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Ever heard of Jesse Heiman? I bet you don’t know his name but have seen him in a movie.

Heiman, 33, has made a career out appearing in movies and television shows as an extra, and so far has appeared in over fifty productions.

He was born in Boston and moved to Los Angeles in 2000 to follow his dream of being in showbiz. And what a strange road it has been.

Jesse is a card carrying member of SAG (Screen Actors Guild) and continually adds his name to the list of actors interested in being an extra. A lot of producers know him by name and he even has a YouTube video that has gone viral.

Just look at some of the big budget productions this guy has been in:

American Pie, American Pie 2, Van Wilder, Spider Man, Catch Me If You Can, The Rules of Attraction, Old School, The Battle of Shaker Heights, Grounded For Life, The O.C., Reno 911, NCIS, Entourage, My Name is Earl, Bones, Arrested Development, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Heroes, 17 Again, Chuck, The Social Network, The Jay Leno Show, and Transformers - Dark of the Moon.

As an extra, Jesse may only appear on screen for one or two seconds, but has rubbed shoulders with the likes of Zac Efron, Jack Black, Leonardo DeCaprio, Tobey McGuire, and Shia LaBeouf.

He makes about $150 per day, every day that he is on the set, and says some shots have taken a week to shoot. He spends most of his time waiting to be called to perform and eating from the Crafts Food Service table.

The really amazing part of this story, besides a guy making a living from being a movie extra, is that some guy in Sweden made a YouTube video with every one of his momentary screen appearances.

Heiman has told reporters that he had no idea who this person was and had never met him before in his life. Jesse only got to know him after the video went viral and received almost 2 million hits.

This is a great video. Enjoy!

Watch Jesse Heiman Movie Extra Viral Video

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