Easy A

Background:

American actor Jake Sandvig is perhaps best known to television audiences for playing Preston Shackleton in “Cracking Up” (Fox, 2004) and Hugh Payne in “Twenty Good Years” (NBC, 2006). He has also appeared as a guest in episodes of several series, including “Once and Again,” “The Closer,” “Veronica Mars,” “Reaper” and “Ruby & The Rockits.” Starting out in commercials, the young thespian has acted in a string of feature films since making his debut in the Rob Reiner unsuccessful drama “The Story of Us” (1999). His subsequent film credits include Mike Mitchell's “Sky High” (2005), Adam Jay Epstein and Andrew Jacobson's “Extreme Movie” (2008) and Will Gluck's teen flicks “Fired Up” (2009) and “Easy A” (2010, as Anson). He also starred in, co-wrote and served as co-producer on “A Bag of Hammers” (2010).

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Childhood and Family:

Steven Jacob Sandvig, who would later be popular as Jake Sandvig, was born on September 8, 1986, in Clovis, California, to Don and Michelle Sandvig. His mother brought two weeks old Jake to Portland, Oregon, to be close to her family and it was there that he discovered his love for acting after one of his teachers encouraged him to try out for local projects. By age 11, he had made the move to Hollywood to pursue acting more professionally. Jake, whose nickname is Jak-oh, was very outgoing. He has three younger sisters, Madison, Mallory and Macy and although he was primarily raised by his mother, his father and grandmother insisted on being his custodian for most of his young life. In honor of his father, he named his production company Papa Don Productions.

Cracking Up

Career:

Jake Sandvig began his career in print ads and commercials. His first theatrical performance was “My Way Home” (1998), a short film about child abuse that was directed by Kenneth Luba. After his move to Los Angeles, Sandvig landed his first high profile role on “The Story of Us” (1999), in which he portrayed Josh Jordan, the son of Bruce Willis and Michelle Pfeifer. Directed by Rob Reiner, the film received generally negative reviews and did not perform well at the box office.

Sandvig made his television movie debut in “Father Can't Cope” (2000), a comedy starring Scott Bakula, Brittney Lee Harvey and Mary Page Keller. He followed it up with appearances in Nickelodeon's “The Amanda Show” (2 episodes, 2000-2002) and the ABC family drama “Once and Again” (2 episodes, 2001-2002). Sandvig's first real break on television arrived when he was cast in the starring role of Preston Shackleton on the Fox sitcom “Cracking Up,” opposite Molly Shannon, Christopher McDonald, Caitlin Wachs, David Walton and Jason Schwartzman. Premiering on March 9, 2004, the show was canceled after six episodes.

In 2005, Sandvig starred with Jonathan Sadowski and Krysten Ritter in the TV film “Pool Guys,” which was directed by Andy Cadiff. He returned to the big screen with the role of Lash in “Sky High,” a superhero movie directed by Mike Mitchell. ”Sky High” earned primarily favorable reviews and was a success at the box office. Also that year, he guest starred in an episode of the television series “The Closer,” starring Kyra Sedgwick.

The next year, Sandvig returned to series television as a regular with the NBC short lived sitcom “Twenty Good Years” (2006), where he starred alongside Jeffrey Tambor, John Lithgow and Heather Burns. Because of poor reviews, the network canceled the show after six episodes. Also in 2006, he appeared as J.B. Riley in an episode of “Veronica Mars” called “Ain't No Magic Mountain High Enough.”

Sandvig played the role of Ronney Kurtainbaum in the comedy film “Finishing the Game: The Search for a New Bruce Lee” in 2007, which was directed and co-written by Justin Lin, co-starred with Rebecca Hall and Josh Cooke in a short film “Rubberheart” (2007), and guest starred in an episode of the NBC series “Journeyman” (2007). He was then cast in the 2008 short films “Official Selection” and “Alien Conspiracy.” He also portrayed Hank in “Extreme Movie” (2008), a comedy film written by Will Forte, Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone.

In 2009, Sandvig played the supporting role of Downey in the teen comedy “Fired Up,” which was directed by Will Gluck and written by Freedom Jones. The film received poor reviews from critics and was commercially unsuccessful. The same year, he appeared as Billy Boyland in an episode of The CW's “Reaper” called “The Good Soil” and as Nils in the episode “Papas Don't Preach” of “Ruby & the Rockits,” an ABC Family sitcom starring Alexa Vega.

In 2010, Sandvig starred with Jason Ritter and Chandler Canterbury in the dramatic film “A Bag of Hammers,” which he co-wrote with director Brian Crano. He also received the role of Anson in Will Gluck's teen comedy “Easy A” (2010). Starring Emma Stone, Penn Badgley, Amanda Bynes, Thomas Haden Church, Patricia Clarkson, Cam Gigandet, Lisa Kudrow, Malcolm McDowell, Alyson Michalka and Stanley Tucci, “Easy A” received generally favorable reviews and was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy for Stone's performance as Olive.

Awards:
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