Youngstown man is finalist in competition

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

A Youngstown man is among the finalists in an online acting competition.

Jose Morales, 22, is among 10 actors — five male and five female — in the Hollywood Discovery contest sponsored by Yahoo.com.

The competition started about a month ago. Audition videos of the 10 finalists — which were selected from tens of thousands of entries — were posted this week. Voting is being done online by the public and will end Oct. 19.

To vote, go to http://movies.yahoo.com/hollywood-movie-awards.

The winner will be flown to Hollywood where he or she will receive their award at a star-studded ceremony. There is no monetary prize, but the recognition among industry insiders could provide an instant start to a film career, said Morales.

A 2007 graduate of Cardinal Mooney High School, Morales is attending Youngstown State University where he is studying pre-dental biology. He is the son of Sgt. Detective Jose Morales of the Youngstown Police Department and Audrey Morales.

He said he has always loved acting, but he put it on the back burner when he got to high school because basketball took up all of his time.

He has had roles in several productions at the Youngstown Playhouse, most recently “A Few Good Men” a couple of years ago.

Morales will be seen in two as-yet unreleased films that were shot in Pittsburgh. He is in an extra in both “Love and Other Drugs” and “The Next Three Days.”