Joe Hursley
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| Joe Hursley | |
|---|---|
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| Born | Joseph Gregory Hursley Austin, Texas |
| Occupation | Actor/Musician |
| Website | |
| http://joehursley.com/ | |
Joseph Hursley (born March 19, 1979) is an actor and musician living in Los Angeles, California.
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[edit] Background
Hursley was born in Austin, Texas. His grandfather, Frank M. Hursley co-created the long running soap General Hospital. His father Greg Hursley[1] is an architectural photographer and his mother, Kelle, is a nurse. Hursley began his entertainment career after participating in the Schick "Groove n' Smooth" national talent search in 1999. Hursley won the talent search, and went on to start his own karaoke company at the age of 19. Karaoke Joe performed 500 shows over the course of the next few years.
[edit] Career
After working some odd jobs Hursley made his acting debut starring in MTV's 2005 reality prankster series You've Got a Friend.[2] The show was produced by Ashton Kutcher and Jason Goldberg. Hursley dove at the chance to play the slightly sinister roles each episode offered. He pushed the limits by getting the contestants to bend to his every whim. The show lended to his talents of improvising realistic, silly, and subversive comedy. His task was to play different "obnoxious friend" personas for hours on end and try to get the unsuspecting contestants to give up. It proved an entertaining but short lived series. After YGAF, Kutcher tapped him to join the Punk'd cast where he stumped various celebrities.
In late 2004, Hursley started the rock n' roll band The Ringers who have recently released their second album "Headlocks and Highkicks". He appeared in the Miami Ink episode, "Ruthless and Toothless", where he had the second album name, "Headlocks and Highkicks", tattooed onto the back of his legs. Although there is a stigma surrounding most actors/musicians, Hursley seems to enjoy doing both and The Ringers were featured in music magazine SPIN.[3] It helped to shake off the stigma as he had previously proved when he played Maurice in the 2006 comedy film Accepted. The Ringers ended up not only in the film, but, on the soundtrack as well. 2007 brought more diverse roles. He portrayed, Otto, in the third installment of the film series Resident Evil: Extinction; and Rob, a creepy diner patron, alongside Jake Busey in Broken (2007 film). Then in 2008, it must have been a culmination of his performing prowess and improv skills when Hursley starred as faux rock god White Gold in California Milk Processor Board's successful commercial campaign. In 2009, he had a brief cameo as a mechanic in Fast & Furious.
Throughout his career Hursley has had various roles in commercials and TV.[4][5]
Most recently he is starring as the lead character, Ben Camelino, in the upcoming feature film BALLS TO THE WALL directed by Penelope Spheeris (Wayne's World and Black Sheep) and produced by Eric Gores, Brett Forbes and Patrick Rizzotti.[6]
Even though The Ringers broke up in 2010, Hursley (along with drummer/cousin, Patrick Hursley) started their new band called INDIANS soon after. They have released their self titled album in 2011 along with Mike McGill and Michael Hays. The first music video/short film "Sink Into You" was written and directed by Jordan Albertsen, starring Joslyn Jensen, and Taylor Handley (The OC, Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning).
INDIANS music has been featured in the film "Rites of Passage" directed by Peter Iliff, as well as on tv's Top Gear show.
