At 18 years old, I was like X-Men’s Cyclops (without the goggles), and Lewis Baumander was Professor Xavier. He honed my skills and powers and made them intentional. It’s not an overstatement to say that he is the foundation of my career. I first met Lewis shortly after I grad­uated from Wexford Collegiate School for the Arts, in Scarborough. I was moving through the casting process for a TV series, and a cast member mentioned that Lewis could really help me with my audition. I was pretty arrogant at the time, with a chip on my shoulder, stepping into LB Acting Studio thinking this mysterious figure doesn’t know what he’s doing. I had all these ideas about how I wanted to play the audition scenes, and Lewis helped me let go. He’s very gracious and simple in his words; he taught me to relax, breathe, take the attention off myself and put it on my scene partner. He sat me down in a chair and was like, “Okay, run it once.” I ran it once. “Okay, do this and that,” he said. So I did. Then he told me that it was all right and to just go and do that and I would be fine. It was Mr. Miyagi Jedi shit. An hour later, I had my audition, and I booked the job on the spot. That was my first day working with Lewis, and I’ve been hooked ever since.