Monday Morning Man: Michael Stahl David!

One of the more intriguing new series on the broadcast networks this fall looks to be ABC’s My Generation, a documentary-style ensenble dramedy about a group of high school students and their lives 10 years after graduation.

One of the stars is Michael Stahl David who plays the class “overachiever” Steven Foster who turns out to be anything but. He has turns out to be a surf bum living in Hawaii. When I chatted up the 27-year-old actor at the TV Critics Assn. Press Tour a few weeks ago, my first question was whether or not he ever surfs.

“I do surf a bit,” he said but made clear he wasn’t cast in the role for his surfing skills.

His acting skills have already been on display on the big screen in Cloverfield and on the short-lived NBC drama The Black Donnellys.

I asked him the compare the two series: “[Donnellys]  was a great show and I learned so much doing it. I think [Generation] is really different, it’s a really different tone. It’s not nearly as dark, it’s funny and I think it’s got much broader appeal and is shot in avery different style.”

Generation is filmed in location in Austin, Texas, and has a large ensemble cast of young people.

“It is like a lot of fun even on long days,” Michael says. “I get inspired watching other people. Everybody is fantastic and you feed off of that.”

I find Michael to be especially impressive because he has paid his dues as an actor over the past decade in a variety of stage roles. He was still a teen when he became very active in the Chicago theater scene. He appeared in plays at the Steppenwolf Theater (One Arm, Theater District), Victory Gardens Theater (Cider House Rules, Lost in Yonkers) and the Goodman (The Goat, Or Who is Sylvia?) Shortly after arriving in New York in 2005, he appeared as Peter in The Diary of Anne Frank at the Papermill Playhouse. In the winter of 2007 he enjoyed critical success in his role in The Overwhelming off Broadway.

In September 2008, Michael starred in and directed the web series Michael Stahl-David: Behind the Star.

“I was the creator and director and star of that show,” he told me. “I had to like make sandwiches for my friends for lunch and do a lot of other jobs besides acting which was fun. What it gave me was a sense of looking at the big picture. I really want to get to know the writers and be on set when I’m not called because I want to watch the scenes. I have ambitions to write and direct more.”

“The web show did make people see that I can do comedy and I realized that I could make my own material.”

I think the sky is the limit for this young talent who isn’t afraid to make things happen for himself.