Holes

Background:

American actor Khleo Thomas has built a reputation for himself as a promising young talent thanks to his bright supporting turn as Zero on the Disney hit motion picture “Holes” (2003), from which he received a Young Artist nomination. “Holes” was his second big screen outing after the 2002 “Friday After Next.” His more recent and upcoming credits include “Baadasssss!” (2003), “Walking Tall” (2004), “Roll Bounce” (2005), “Dirty” (2005), “The Beautiful Ordinary” (2007) and “Krews” (2008). Thomas also has collected some resume on the small screen, including the Disney Channel Original movie “Going to the Mat” (2004). On his role in the prominent film, he said, “There are definitely some similarities but the difference is I'm not a nerd. Fly's kind of a nerd, and nervous around people, I'm not. I try to be as cool with people as I can. That's kind of why the school is against him. But he's a musical guy, and music is something we both share.

Outside of acting, Thomas is a rap singer. He enjoys such sports as football, baseball, basketball, track, skateboarding, and lifting weights. He also likes reading, especially his favorite books, The “Harry Potter” series.

Li'l Khlee Khlee

Childhood and Family:

Khaleed Leon Thomas was born on January 30, 1989, in Anchorage, Alaska, where his father was stationed in the Army after serving in the first Gulf War. A product of a culturally diverse family, his father is an African-American and his mother was from Morocco, and he spoke five languages. After leaving in Germany, his family moved to California in 1995, where the future actor and his three siblings, Khadeem, Khamel and Khaleea, were raised.

Khaleed Leon Thomas combined his first and middle names into Khleo when he started acting in commercials at age 6. He has since used Khleo Thomas as his pseudonym. He got the nickname Li'l Khlee Khlee during the production of “Holes.”

Krews

Career:

Khleo Thomas started appearing in commercials when he was 6 years old. Three years later, he made his debut as a child guest on the Bill Cosby reality-TV series “Kids Say the Darndest Things” (1998). His real acting job arrived a year later when he was cast as Lanny Brass on an episode of “Family Law” called “Games.”

After appearing as Jordan in an episode of the NBC comedy “City Guys” (2001), Thomas made his feature film debut with a small role in the comedy “Friday After Next” (2002), starring Ice Cube and Mike Epps. He continued with a bigger part as Hector 'Zero' Zeroni, fiend of the wrongly accused Stanley Yelnats (played by Shia LaBeouf), on the black comedy “Holes” (2003), which Louis Sachars scripted based on his bestseller book. The critically acclaimed Disney film also starred Sigourney Weaver, Jon Voight and Tim Blake Nelson. Thomas was nominated for a 2004 Young Artist for Best Performance in a Feature Film - Supporting Young Actor for his work in the film.

Also in 2003, Thomas was cast along side Mario Van Peebles, T.K. Carter, Nia Long and Paul Rodriguez on “How to Get the Man's Foot Outta Your Ass/ Baadasssss!” (2003), a semi-autobiographical of Peebles to his father Melvin's 1971 film, “Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song.” There Thomas portrayed young Mario Van Peebles. Next, the young actor had the opportunity to work with his self-proclaimed hero, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, in the the remake of the 1973 film “Walking Tall” (2004), portraying Pete Vaughn.

It was also in 2004 that Thomas revisited the small screen as Brian in “Forgive and Forget,” an episode of the NBC hit medical series “ER.” He also costarred with Andrew Lawrence and Alessandra Toreson in the Disney Channel movie-of- the-week, “Going to the Mat” (2004), about a teen blind musician who joins the wrestling team in order to deal with culture shock.

The following year saw Thomas play Mixed Mike on the Bow Wow starring vehicle “Roll Bounce,” a comedy/music directed by Malcolm D. Lee. The same year, he also appeared as Splooge in the Chris Fisher-helmed crime/thriller “Dirty,” opposite Cuba Gooding Jr., Brittany Daniel, Wood Harris and many others, and acted in an episode of the comedy series “The Bernie Mac Show.” Thomas went on to have guest spots in such shows as the short-lived “Teachers.” and the hit “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” (both 2006).

Recently playing Dylan in “The Beautiful Ordinary,” a comedy/drama penned and directed by Jess Manafort, and Kenny in an episode of “House M.D.” (both 2007), the 19-year-old performer is set to play the supporting role of Tom Tom on the upcoming drama film “Krews” (2008), opposite Brian Geraghty, Faune A. Chambers and Sam Jones III.

In addition to his acting career, Thomas is also known as a rapper. Along side Bow Wow, his costar on the 2005 “Roll Bounce,” he performed on the Scream IV Tour, at the Kid's Choice Awards 2006, on the “The Tyra Banks Show”, on “Jimmy Kimmel Live”, on 106 and Park, and at the 25th Annual BET Anniversary pre-show. A Famous Hype Man for Bow Wow, Thomas also was once featured on Bow Wow's “Price Of Fame” album on “Track 10 (Bet That).” He also has collaborated with other artists like Miss Nana and Young Rome. On his own, Thomas has released his first Rap/R&B album called “Prince of the West” on his MySpace page.

Awards:
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