Sudden Impact: Randall Cunningham – Actor

Age: 18
School: Senior, Central Private School
Extracurriculars: Movies, comic books, video games
Dream job: Writer, director, producer, actor
Inspiration: My father, who shows me you can achieve anything, road bumps and all

Randall Cunningham is all shaggy hair and freckles, with a confident ease smoothing out his teenage edges. The cafe is crowded, and Cunningham leans into the recorder, raises his voice over the noise and jokes, in a Shakespearean cadence, “Don’t worry, I’ve been classically trained.”

For the young actor, it all started in kindergarten. A school production of Annie Jr. where the young Cunningham played a “townsperson” with no lines to speak of set the course for the rest of his life.

School play after school play, Cunningham eventually became known as the leading player before moving on to Baton Rouge Little Theater and countless acting workshops to sharpen his skills. But even as Cunningham honed his stage performance, he became infatuated with movies.

At 15, Cunningham secured an agent and followed his film obsession through a long line of auditions. He landed his big break a year later playing Will Ferrell’s son in The Campaign.

“I went in with zero confidence that I was going to get the part,” Cunningham says. “And because of that, I wasn’t nervous at all. That’s how I got it.”

He found himself riffing and improvising opposite comedy legend Will Ferrell and sharing scenes with John Lithgow, Dan Aykroyd and Zach Galifianakis. All in a day’s work.

Lately, that work has included the role of Clint in the upcoming adaptation of The Maze Runner. Shooting in Jackson, La., has been an action-packed experience Cunningham says he will never forget. And when he wasn’t performing his own stunt work and co-starring with some of the hottest young talent in the world, Cunningham was finishing up his senior year.

Cunningham plans to study film in Florida and pursue a career in directing as well as acting. It’s a long way from Annie Jr., but this “townsperson” has found a lot to say. facebook.com/RandallDCunningham