Oneonta Actor Cuyle Carvin On Brink Of Big-Time

By LIBBY CUDMORE • allotsego.com

Edition of Thursday-Friday, Nov. 20-21, 2014

ONEONTA – Like many other people, Cuyle Carvin found his first job in the employment section of the newspaper – he just didn’t know it was going to be his career.

“I was working at the Southside Mall and I saw this ad calling for extras for a crime reenactment show they were shooting in Delhi,” he said. “So I went, and they had me read some lines – a few days later, I got this call asking me to come out to Ohio.”

The show, “The World’s Astonishing News!” only aired in Japan, but it was the first step in the Oneontan’s acting career that’s been advancing for a decade now.

Carvin, a 1999 OHS graduate and a 2003 Hartwick College alumni, will be featured in the Dec. 14 episode of “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” on CBS.

And to date he has appeared in more than 50 film and television roles – including “NCIS: Los Angeles” and “The Mentalist” since that first film shoot in Delhi.

After returning from Ohio, he moved to New York City and started looking for more work. “I thought I wanted to be a model, but that was the stupidest thing ever! I had to take myself too seriously, and I’m a little too introverted.”

In 2006, he got booked on the soap opera, “One Life To Live,” in a non-speaking role at a pool party. His model good looks served him well. He was picked out of 120 extras to interact directly with one of the actresses, who snatched a beach ball out of his hands. “I thought I was so cool,” he said. “I called all my friends and family and told them to watch it.”

But sometimes his excitement got a little ahead of him. “I was on ‘As the World Turns,’ and I told my family to look for me to say, ‘More coffee or more water, sir?’ But when it came time for my scene, all you could see was my elbow! It could have been anybody! My brother still teases me about it.”

He booked other soap operas before landing a starring role as Sam Battle in the film, “Captain Battle: Legacy War.” He then starred in several other films, including “Assault of the Sasquatch” and “Fog Warning.”

Just before he decided to move out to Los Angeles, he booked a speaking role on “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit,” in the 2010 episode “Quickie.” “I played the husband in bed sleeping next to my wife. And when she hears a scream, I told her, ‘It’s probably just some party girl’.”

And although he was living in L.A., he didn’t forget where he came from. While hosting a screening of “Fog Warning,” at the Southside Mall Cinema, he met Lori Kelly, who told him about her screenplay, “Mineville.” The film, based on Kelly’s grandfather’s life as a miner, also starred William Sadler and Paul Sorvino.

But just because he was a local boy didn’t mean the part was written for him. “Mike Williams, who was in ‘The Blair Witch Project,’ was my neighbor,” said Carvin. “I saw him one day and told him about just finishing ‘Mineville,’ and he told me he had been offered my part five years earlier!”

Lately, the former high school jock is putting his love of sports front and center for a good cause in “The Cuyle Carvin Coloring Book,” which is being distributed by “Drawing With Fred” star Fred M. Grandinetti. “There’s a page that shows me coming out of the TV, and I take the kid’s hand and we go outside to play,” he said.

The coloring book has been distributed to schools, hospitals and charity events throughout Massachusetts. Copies are also available for request on his website, www.cuylecarvin.com.

And in addition to his upcoming role on “CSI,” he’s also working on the film “A Million Happy Nows,” with former “Teen Witch” star Dan Gauthier.

“My girlfriend had a huge crush on him when he was in ‘Teen Witch!’” Carvin said. “I told her I’d introduce her.”