He's not a household name ... Yet!

North Bay native Jamie Spilchuk strikes a familiar pose at Beyond Wireless during a recent visit home.

Jamie Spilchuk may not be a household name yet, but with four nationwide commercials and a new made for TV movie under his belt that is all about to change.

The North Bay native, who graduated from George Brown Theatre School (2003 -2006) just over a year ago, has burst through the performance gates like a gang buster, and fortunate enough to land a number of acting jobs that would make any colleague envious. To his credit Spilchuck has landed plum roles including the suave Roger’s cell phone customer and the kid brother goalie for Tim Horton’s.

“That all started in January so about a year now, I graduated in April 2006 my agent started sending me out after that I got a theatre gig after that before Christmas and immediately in the New Year I landed the first Rogers Commercial,” he explains during a recent visit home.

“I did another commercial for Mac’s convenience stores ... an internet ad ... then the second Roger’s commercial came along I was asked to do it again because they got really good feedback from the first one. The Tim Horton’s commercial came along ... and then I was fortunate enough to land a movie in the middle of November and I just got back from Halifax from shooting that.”

Spilchuk admits that acting wasn’t a burning desire for him as a child but credits his high school teacher Rob McCubbin’s intuition, persistence and support for pointing him in the right direction.

“I did some drama starting in grade 11 at Widdifield ... I basically made the decision that I want to become an actor and pursue it in OAC when I was applying for school ... I just gave it a go and got accepted into George Brown and have been doing it ever since.”

“I was able to learn a lot from him (Rob McCubbin) about what I wanted to do cause I was struggling with it ... I had visions of ending up in a business program that I didn’t really want to be at ... that’s cool if that’s what you want to do and all, but it wasn’t really in my heart.”

“It wasn’t what I wanted to, so I was very fortunate that Rob gave me the push ... whatever he did ... I don’t even know what he did, but gave me the push in the right direction to go to just do what I want to do.”

Unlike any other career acting is a constant roller coaster ride with as many lows as there are highs and Spilchuk carries that with him in order to stay grounded.

“It’s hard ... You just really have to want to be doing this for your career ... I haven’t told you about all the auditions that I didn’t get obviously,” he says.

“There are quite a bit you go out for ... and a lot and you just have to forget about as soon as you leave ... and if you get a call then fantastic. But I’ve been very fortunate this year, very blessed getting all this work it’s been nice to help me launch into 2008 to see what I can do there as well.”

Understanding that commercials pay the bills and rent, as well as get your face out to the public, the young actor hopes to continue that success for the immediate future.

“I hope to get a couple more commercials that would be great, obviously do more films and TV would be great too. Feature films of made for TV movies like I did in Halifax just kind of keep it going and keep it progressing ... and I’m trying not to get any breaks,” he explains.

“The timing has worked out very cool that I did the Roger’s one in January and kind of kept on air, so I’ve kind of been on TV for a year now over the course of each commercial so the timing has worked out perfectly not to many at once cause you don’t want to get sick of anyone ... don’t want to get bored of anyone, but it’s been an ongoing thing.”

Although he loves the great white north, Spilchuk understands that a move to ‘Tinsel Town’ is most likely in order if he is to reach the success he wants.

“Truthfully, ultimately I’m progressing, so the ultimate thing would be I guess to move to Los Angeles.”

“95 percent of the stuff shot in North America is cast out of L.A. so ... I think there are 25 casting directors in Toronto and there are over 1,000 in Los Angeles ... I would like to stay in Canada ... I like Canada ... but you gotta do what you gotta do.”

To kick it off Spilchuk sees himself starting off in L.A. part time heading south for pilot season in January and February.

“Every year they have pilot season which is to get scripts going and cast up just for the summer and new shows for the fall line up so I’d like to go down maybe next year check that out.”

“Moving down there (full time) maybe in a couple of years, I’d like to get myself more established in Canada first so I can bring down something that will give me credibility on the resume ... more things on the resume ... go down with a good demo reel.

Check him out on You Tube