::fresno bee article::
Fresno Bee, September 18, 1999 by Rick Bentley
PASADENA - Actors often use events from their past to help them play a part. If Christopher Gorham calls up his past for his role as Harrison John on the new WB Network series Popular, there will be a distinct Fresno presence. Gorham, one of the young faces of Hollywood, was born and raised in Fresno. His passion for acting began in the fourth grade when he portrayed the Mad Hatter in a Nelson Elementary School production of Alice Through the Looking Glass. "I won the best actor award that was usually won by sixth graders," Gorham says with the pride and enthusiasm usually reserved for Emmy wins. He actually has to shout his answer over the noise inside the trendy Pasadena restaurant Il Fornaio where the cast has assembled to talk about the new fall program. Popular focuses on cliques at Kennedy High School. The school has its usual divisions of geeks, freaks, jocks and jerks. These segregated worlds would continue in their own private orbits if not for an unusual set of circumstances that brings rivals together. Gorham plays the boy next door who believes popularity is the ultimate sellout. But series co-creator Ryan Murphy explains that in this high school, popularity is fleeting and will move through the student body like a virus. "It is going to be interesting to see how my character deals with getting popular. Then, when he ultimately loses it, it will be even more interesting to see how he deals with that," Gorham says. To play both sides of the popularity issue, Gorham can recall his school days. He thinks he was popular when he was in the eighth grade. "Then I was a geek again in the ninth grade because I was only 4-feet-11 and everyone else had grown," Gorham says. He recovered by the time he reached his teens at the Roosevelt School of the Arts. That's when Gorham was pictured in the pages of The Fresno Bee as being one local high school student who dressed for success. Gorham can even understand life as an athlete. He played water polo and was good enough to be sent to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. "They were trying to revive the water polo program in Fresno. They sent me and another guy to the center. But we both quit water polo the next year," Gorham says. He wanted to concentrate on acting that included both school productions and work at Roger Rocka's Dinner Theater. Dan Pessano, managing directing of Good Company Players, has monitored Gorham's career, and Gorham's starring role doesn't surprise him. He said he knew Gorham's positive attitude, comedic abilities and good looks would lead to success. "He's been working as much as anyone his age so that the 'overnight success' tag does not apply," Pessano says. "You don't work that often in that business if you are not good." He adds that Gorham's greatest asset is that he was always a young man with his feet totally on the ground. "That counts more than anything in this business." Gorham also has the look Hollywood is drooling over. The majority of new television shows feature young casts. Although he's in his mid-20s, Gorham has the look to play a teen-ager. A thin face. Hair cut fashionably short. Even with this youth movement in the entertainment world that hasn't been as predominant since the film Wild in the Streets, Gorham says that a good week for him was three auditions. He landed the role in Popular in February; the first episode was shot in March. Then the Fresno native and the rest of the cast had to wait to see if one of the networks would buy the show. Gorham kept his day job with Audience Services, a ticket company for two large Los Angeles theaters. He and his fiancee were having drinks with the show's creators when WB officials called to give the program the green light. His fiancee is Anel Lopez Gorham, and it isn't a coincidence that they already have the same last name. She decided to go ahead and change her name for professional reasons although the wedding isn't until January. The couple met while attending the University of California at Los Angeles. "We were in this vaudeville class their 1995-96 school year where we had to pick a partner. I picked her because she was cute," Gorham says. The exercise was for the actors to stand back to back and speak to each other using only questions. No matter what Gorham said, she would answer "What?" "I couldn't figure out what she was doing. I didn't realize she just couldn't hear me," Gorham says. "So, when I turned around, I said to her 'I think I'm falling in love with you.' " Anel admits her first thoughts were that he was just another creep hitting on her. They didn't date for months, but finally got together. That's when Gorham found out they shared similar roots. Anel and her family lived in Fresno for six months when she was a child. She still has uncles and cousins living in the Valley. Gorham's family still calls Fresno home. His father, David Gorham, is a certified public accountant. His mother, Cathryn, is a school nurse. His father says Gorham has been focused on being an actor since he was a toddler. That started with church and school plays and has never wavered. There was only one thing his parents asked of the young actor: a college education. The young couple will have to slow down their number of visits to Fresno because of production on Popular. Not only will Gorham be busy as one of the nine leads on the show, but Anel has been added as a recurring character. She will portray Poppy Fresh, one of the school's cliquish cheerleaders. Past trips into the Valley have had to be juggled with other acting jobs. Gorham worked one day on the Cameron Diaz-Ewan McGregor film A Life Less Ordinary and had guest shots on Spy Games, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Saved By the Bell. It was his work in Party of Five that gave Gorham his first taste of acting popularity. For four episodes, he played Sarah's (Jennifer Love Hewitt) love interest. The relationship ended when the character realized he was gay. Gorham says he had no concerns the role would stereotype him because it was so well written. He just didn't realize it would make him famous. "We were in San Francisco where Party of Five is set and everyone knew me. It was strange," Gorham says. He had better get used to it. Both the show and Gorham have gotten strong positive buzz with critics. That will make him the latest Valley product to hit it big. "Fresno is really an amazing place. Look at all the people who have come from there," Gorham says. In other words, Fresno actors are "Popular."
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