Valley native takes acting talent online
The graduate of Mathews High plays ‘Mystery Man’ on StrikeTV’s ‘With the Angels.’
special to the vindicator
Timothy Lee DePriest, a native of Vienna, Ohio, and a graduate of Mathews High School, will appear in a new Web series that begins Tuesday.
“With the Angels,” a 36-episode series debuting on www.strike.tv, follows the adventures of Taffy Simpson, a small-town Arkansas girl who relocates to Los Angeles to become a “professional production assistant.” But when the school she’s planning to attend turns out to be a scam, Taffy moves into a run-down building on the beach in Venice, an area of Los Angeles known for its high “freak factor.”
Too shy to talk to anyone, Taffy uses her video camera to get to know her neighbors. All of them share with the camera things they can’t share with one another, creating a funny and moving commentary on God, fame, love, sex, cars, music, TV — and all the other things people put their faith in.
DePriest plays the character of “Mystery Man,” who lives in Apartment 6 of Taffy’s building and who is — well, a mystery.
DePriest got his start as a performance artist and in spoken word poetry. He’s cut his teeth as an actor playing major roles in independent films. “Dark Place” and “Rock Bottom” garnered critical praise and did well on the festival circuit. He’s had guest roles on “CSI: Las Vegas,” “ER” and “Dragnet” and smaller roles on a handful of other shows. His work can be seen at www.billytombs.com.
StrikeTV is an online network that was born out of the Hollywood writers strike earlier this year; its initial lineup consists of some 40 shows. Besides “With the Angels” creator Mary Feuer, whose previous work includes the seminal Web series “Lonelygirl15,” the network features shows from Tom Holland (creator of “Child’s Play”), Kate Purdy (“Cold Case”) Joe Kelly (“How I Met Your Mother”) and Mindy Kaling (“The Office”). Featured actors include Bob Newhart, Timothy Dalton, JoBeth Williams, Aasif Mandvi, Kristin Wiig and Arye Gross.
“It seems everyone is trying to figure out how scripted shows might work on the Internet and when Mary Feuer approached me about ‘With the Angels’ and StrikeTV, I was completely intrigued by the possibilities,” said DePriest. “There is a certain raw honesty that permeates Mary’s writing and the show. It’s exciting for me to be working in this guerrilla format and to be at StrikeTV where it seems anything might be possible.”
“With the Angels” will debut Tuesday with a special two-episode series premiere. After that, episodes will be posted every Monday through Thursday until Christmas.