Rider Strong

Rider King Strong is an American actor, voice actor, director, producer, and screenwriter. For Disney, he is best known for his role as Shawn Hunter in the 1990s sitcom Boy Meets World and its spinoff Girl Meets World. He also voiced Brick Flagg in Kim Possible and Tom Lucitor in Star vs. the Forces of Evil.

Biography[]

Early life[]

Rider King Strong was born in San Francisco, California, the son of Lin (née Warner), a teacher and nutritionist, and King Strong, a firefighter. He graduated from high school in Sebastopol, California in 1998. His brother is Shiloh Strong, an actor and still a photographer.^[1]

Career[]

Strong began his acting career at the age of nine, when he starred as Gavroche in the San Francisco production of Les Misérables. After the stage production, he appeared in small screen roles on television. In 1992, he received his first regular television series role as Julie Andrews' son in Julie. When the series was canceled, Strong made his debut on film as Amy Irving's son in Benefit of the Doubt. It was not until he was chosen for the role of Shawn Hunter in the ABC series Boy Meets World that he received widespread recognition.

During the seven-year run, he was nominated twice for the Young Artist Award and nominated for a Hollywood Reporter YoungStar Award. When the series ended, Strong returned to the big screen to star as Paul in the indie horror film Cabin Fever directed by Eli Roth. In 2006, he returned to television for a regular series role in Pepper Dennis on the WB. The show was short-lived and was not chosen as one of the transferring shows to The CW Television Network. That same year, Strong recorded a reading for the audio version of the Anthony Kiedis biography, Scar Tissue. He had a brief cameo appearance in 2009's Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever, the sequel to Cabin Fever.

Along with his brother, Shiloh Strong, he wrote and directed the short film Irish Twins, which premiered at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival. It went on to win both the Jury Award and Audience Award at the Woods Hole Film Festival, a Special Jury Prize in the Action/Cut Short Film Competition, and Best First-Time Director at DC Shorts. Speaking to Pure Movies in 2010, he expressed that he wanted to expand his writing and directing career: 'Acting is always there and I enjoy it but it's kind of got a little unfulfilling lately. You know, I'm in the low budget horror world… I have a whole lot of other stuff I want to do.'^[2]

In April 2008, Strong co-created (with his brother and his then-girlfriend, actress Alexandra Barreto) a 30-second television ad in support of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, titled "It Could Happen to You". The ad, submitted to MoveOn.org, became one of 15 finalists from a pool of over 1,100 submitted ads, and was chosen as the funniest ad in May 2008. In August, MoveOn raised $200,000 to air the ad on MTV and Comedy Central; it was the first political commercial to ever appear on Comedy Central. In early 2009, Strong narrated the audiobook of The Obama Revolution by Alan Kennedy-Shaffer. In 2010, Strong starred in the science fiction-thriller film The Darkening Sky alongside Ezra Buzzington, Charley Rossman, Sally Berman, Daniel Kirschner, and LaShan Anderson under the direction of Victor Bornia.^[3]

In late 2012, Strong declined an offer to reprise his role as Shawn Hunter in the upcoming spinoff Girl Meets World. However, during production of the pilot in March 2013, Strong along with other cast members, who were also unconfirmed to return, appeared on the set sparking rumors of a cameo or return to the new series. Creator Michael Jacobs stated "I think there's more than a chance, I think there's a strong chance" when commenting on Strong and other original series cast members returning. Other current cast members commented on Strong's return indicating that his return might be a secret not ready to be revealed. In June 2013, a Boy Meets World reunion was held with Strong attending along with many of his former cast members.^[4] On March 19, 2014, it was confirmed that Strong would reprise his role as Shawn Hunter in two episodes, the first being a holiday-themed episode along with former cast members Betsy Randle and William Russ.^[5]

Personal life[]

In 2004, Strong graduated magna cum laude from Columbia University as an English major. While a student at Columbia, he wrote the foreword for fellow Columbian Steve Hofstetter's "Student Body Shots". Before Columbia, Strong attended Occidental College. He completed his Master of Fine Arts degree in June 2009 at Bennington College.

Strong began dating actress Alexandra Barreto after they met while filming the 2006 television series Pepper Dennis.^[6] They became engaged in December 2012,^[6] and married on October 20, 2013 in Oregon.^[7]

Filmography[]

Film
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1993	Benefit of the Doubt	Pete Braswell
1998	My Giant	Justin Allen
2001	Buck Naked Arson	Willy Barnes
2001	The Secret Pact	Lenny B. Dalton
2002	Cabin Fever	Paul
2004	Death Valley	Daniel
2005	Paradise, Texas	Charlie
2007	Cosmic Radio	Justin
2007	Borderland	Phil
2007	Tooth and Nail	Ford
2008	Spy School	Mr. Randall
2008	Irish Twins	Michael Sullivan	Short film
2008	Pulse 3: Invasion	Adam	Video
2009	H20 Extreme	Greg
2009	Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever	Paul
2010	Darkening Sky	Eric Rainer
2010	Ruff Love	George	Short film
2010	The Penthouse	Kieran
2010	Your Lucky Day	Young Man	Short film Shown at the 2010 Seattle International Film Festival^[8]
2011	Lone	Jason Sumner	Short film
2011	Walter Don't Dance		Short film
2013	Too Late	Matthew	Post-production

Television
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1991	Long Road Home	Benjy Robertson	TV film
1991	Going Places	David	Episode: "The Camping Show"
1992	Julie	Adam McGuire	Recurring role (7 episodes)
1992	Empty Nest	Philip Logan	Episode: "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?"
1992	Evening Shade	Jimmy	Episode: "The Diary of Molly Newton"
1992	Home Improvement	Danny	Episode: "Haunting of Taylor House"
1993	Nurses	Max Kaplan	Episode: "The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea"
1993	Time Trax	William Peterman	Episode: "The Prodigy"
1993	The Last Hit	Jimmy Dunne	TV film
1993–2000	Boy Meets World	Shawn Hunter	Main role (158 episodes)
1994	Summertime Switch	Frederick Egan III	TV film
1996	Maybe This Time	Shawn Hunter	Episode: "Acting Out"
1996	Party of Five	Byron	Episode: "Summer Fun, Summer Not" Episode: "Going, Going, Gone"
1997	Oddville, MTV		1 episode
1998	Hercules	Pollux (voice)	Episode: "Hercules and the Trojan War"
1998	Invasion America	Jim Bailey (voice)	TV series
1999	The Practice	Gary Armbrust	Episode: "Home Invasions" Episode: "Infected"
1999	Batman Beyond	Bobby Vance (voice)	Episode: "Lost Soul"
1999–2000	Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles	Pvt. Carl Jenkins	12 episodes
2002	Law & Order: Criminal Intent	Ethan Edwards	Episode: "The Pilgrim"
2002–2004	Kim Possible	Brick Flagg (voice)	Recurring role (5 episodes)
2005	Kim Possible Movie: So the Drama	Brick Flagg (voice)	TV film
2006	Crumbs	Dennis	Episode: "Six Feet Blunder"
2006	Pepper Dennis	Chick Dirka	Main role (11 episodes)
2006	Veronica Mars	Rafe	Episode: "My Big Fat Greek Rush Week"
2007	Bones	Gregg Liscombe	Episode: "Mummy in the Maze"
2009	Castle	Rocco Jones	Episode: "The Fifth Bullet"
2010	100 Questions	Alan	Episode: "Wayne?"
2012	Paulilu Mixtape	Sam Paxton	Episode: "Hooker Lawyer"
2014-2017	Girl Meets World	Shawn Hunter	Recurring Role (2 episodes)
2015-2019	Star vs. the Forces of Evil	Tom Lucitor	Recurring Role (28 episodes, intro song)
2016-present	Mighty Magiswords	Familiar	Recurring Role

Awards/Nominations[]

Awards
Year	Award	Category	Production	Result
1994	Young Artist Award	Best Youth Comedian	Boy Meets World	Nominated
1994	Young Artist Award	Best Performance in a TV Comedy – Supporting Young Actor	Boy Meets World	Nominated
2000	Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards	Favorite Television Friends	Boy Meets World (shared with Ben Savage)	Won
2008	Washington DC Shorts Film Festival	Best First Time Filmmaker	Irish Twins (shared with Shiloh Strong)	Nominated