HISTORY

Although conceived in New York, Devin was born in Greensboro, NC. His mother being afraid of the doctors in NY drove down to Greensboro just to have him and then brought him back. His mother raised him in Queens for the first 8 years of his life. Then in  order to be closer to the family, they moved down to North Carolina where he stayed through College. After leaving College he moved to Florida and performed there for four years. Next step, New York! Moved there and within months got a job in the musical "Starlight Express", in Germany, where he had always wanted to live, having grown up around Germans all his life.  After finishing his job in Germany, he moved to Paris (another one of his dreams) where he lived for a year. Then due to difficulties finding work there he came back to NY where within a month he began his Broadway career. Since then he has appeared in eight Broadway shows over eleven years including original casts of revivals, "Wonderful Town", "Carousel", "Jesus Christ Superstar" and "Pajama Game", original casts of "Victor/Victoria" and "Seussical:The Musical" plus Broadway shows, "Smokey Joe's Cafe "and "The Life".

 

HOBBIES

Devin has quite a few hobbies, his favorites of which are languages (he speaks french and german), wine, computers, gadgets, snowboarding and capoeira!

LANGUAGES

"You gotta be in the country to really grasp the nature of the language"

Devin's interest in languages started young.  However the language education available to him in his formative years was very limited. Then while living in Paris, he attended school full time for several months to learn how to speak French. German came to him differently. He had always wanted to learn the language having grown up around Germans. So he learned the basics on his own out of a book while performing out of town. Then when arriving in Germany he tried out what he learned, found out that it worked and built on his book smarts with real life experience.

WINE

"I've always found that people become uptight when trying to choose wine, wanting to get it right or more so afraid of picking the "wrong one". My motto is, "No matter how cheap or expensive it is, if you like how the wine tastes, then it is a good wine!"

Devin's interest in wine began through his best friend in Europe who was a Parisien and wanted him to learn the taste of wine. Believe it or not, he did not like the taste at first. Nor could he remotely begin to decipher flavors or as they say the "bouquet "of the wine. But he learned to drink it. His first red? An Alsatian Pinot Noir. After that he continued to taste and began to read about all the different wines and how to tell whether they were good or not and the difference in years, grapes, climates, regions, and all the wonderful things that make up a beautful wine. He ultimately ended up being offerred a job at the distinguished wine shope, Sherry Lehman's, which was then connected with the prestigious Sotheby's wine auction and where had worked Chevy Chase once upon a time. He also, while working on the West End, managed to be photographed in one of the most prestigious wine magazines, "Tasting", in London while attending a very high end wine tasting. However he doesn't find wine to be so uppity and inaccessible as people make it out to be.

Here are some of his favorites:

Best Wine I've Ever Had: Chateau Latour 1966
French white: Chassagne Montrachet 1er cru
California white: Shafer Chardonnay (he collects them)
Everyday red: Fleur de Carneros , pinot noir (always subject to change)
Everyday white: Practically any of the Marlborough Sauvignon Blancs

 

COMPUTERS

Believe it or not, Devin never ever wanted to own a computer. It was later in life that Devin found he had an affinity for computers. Something would inevitably go wrong with the computer and he would figure out how to fix it. No training, just through tinkering. A friend later pointed out that he had a talent for it. So late in his Broadway career he decided to take some off from theatre. To "quit the biz" as they say. He attended school in order to get certified in both repairing computers and in Networking computer systems which he found fascinating. He had a curiousity for what went on inside the machine. So over the next year he managed to get his certifications as a Microsoft Certified Sytems Engineer, a Microsoft Certified Professional, and as a A+ Computer Repairman. He also worked with a team in a huge law firm datacenter, monitoring, upkeeping and troubleshooting their huge network of thousands of computers and servers consisiting of networks in 20+ cities and 12+ countries for a year and a half and loved it. He still enjoys and ends up being the resident computer guy in any given show that he is performing in.

GADGETS

"Gadget gifts are always accepted!"
Go iphone!
Devin is hooked on all kinds of gadgets. From the new iphone to any kind of electronic gizmo. He has more than should be named just sitting around the house. Of course there are the staples,the video ipod, the mac powerbook, ipaq pda, mini digital camera, canon sd630 digital camera, video camera, motorazr phone, wireless earpiece by jabra, bluetooth earpiece and course wireless headphones, plus the best headphones, the Bose noise cancelling. He also has some not so common things like the pen scanner, the pen notebook recorder, mini disc player/ recorder, graphic pads, the old playstation, playstation2, tivo, mbox, recording gear, yamaha dgx505. For fear of never leaving home, he has yet to buy any of the latest video game gear, but like he first quoted... gifts are always welcome!

SNOWBOARDING

"Snowboarding is a wonderful way to spend time with nature. You are not in a rush unless you want to be. You spend a lot of time in the snow and on the ground, breathe fresh air. There's the rush of speeding down the hill, jumping on the ramps. You are always encouraged to push yourself to the limit and take chances and make mistakes. The object is to fall down! Not to be perfect. No falling, no fun! When you are on the mountain, no one can touch you!"

The new love of his life.
Another surprise in his life. Having a fear of heights, he never expected to ever  become a lover of the mountain. However, he was convinced to try skiing and did, it was ok, then tried a trend called snowblading which is like skating on snow which came easily since he was already an avid roller skater and blader, then, during his first vacation to Whistler Mountain, the snow was too high for snowblading and he decided that it was an ideal time to try snowboarding. First two weeks: "Painful as hell! Then if you stick with it there is a transformation that is mind blowing, and then you are hooked!"

BROADWAY SHOWS

Carousel
Victor/Victoria
Smokey Joe's Cafe
The Life
Jesus Christ Superstar
Seussical
Wonderful Town
Pajama Game
110 in the Shade

FAVORITE NON-TRADITIONAL ROLE

Javert in Les Miserables

Devin has the opportunity to be the second black Javert ever at the North Shore Music Theatre He has dreamed about this show since his college days but never expected the opportunity to do the show at all much less play Javert.
"The cool thing about North Shore Music Theatre is that not only do the encourage and practice non-traditional casting, they actually set an example by exercising non-traditional casting in principal roles instead of just putting the minorities in the ensemble.
I applaud that!"