While last Sunday's Super Bowl game was perhaps not as thrilling as many had hoped, the commercials are always a crowd pleaser. One memorable commercial came from State Farm Insurance, as "Jake From State Farm" humorously finds out that his behind-the-scenes stand-in is none other than music sensation Drake. Super Bowl Sunday marked the one year anniversary of the world being introduced to this "Jake from State Farm" actual persona we’ve all come to know today and the very real man behind that red shirt and khakis is definitely embracing the moment. Actor Kevin Miles is from the South Side of Chicago. As a young boy, he loved sports and says he was proudly raised during the Michael Jordan era. The 30-year-old realized his dream for acting at the age of nine, after his father noticed his son's admiration for what he was watching on television. "You’re watching all these shows on TV of these people doing all these cool things and you want to be them. And as an actor, you can be anything," Miles tells Forbes of what he recalls his father saying to him. Soon after, Miles began to pursue acting in elementary school, including a production of Romeo and Juliet. "I was a bigger kid, I was like 240 [pounds]," Miles says of his childhood. "So, I got to play 'Lord Capulet.' It was my first time on-stage and I just remember feeling like I was Marlon Brando in The Godfather up there. The reaction was great and I saw endless opportunities to be an actor."Miles went on to study Theatre at the Chicago Academy for the Arts and then onto St. Louis to continue to strengthen his craft at Webster University’s Conservatory of Theatre Arts. He graduated with a BFA in acting and from there, focused on finding quality work, initially unsure of which city he would find the most luck in. "I was confused whether I wanted to go to LA or New York or I should stay in Chicago, my hometown, and save up money and build some credits there," Miles continues. "The thing that I wanted was just to come to LA. So, I got that one-way ticket. My mom came with me and helped me get this old used Mustang and she left the next day. I didn’t have an apartment. I came with two bags and a pillow."The aspiring actor at the time remembers sleeping in his car for a week, before finding a room to live in that he says was far too expensive for his nearly non-existent income. "I was food running for awhile and that was hard because to get all these Theatre degrees and every week food running in your graduation suit. It was so daunting." A couple of Miles's friends began recommending that he get on casting networks to get more noticed and so, he began submitting "obsessively" for acting opportunities, big and small. "It was definitely hard. I kept going. It was brick-by-brick and making sure I put my best foot forward and go for it."As his luck and determination would ultimately have it, Miles soon began booking commercials before he even had an agent.

All data is taken from the source: http://forbes.com
Article Link: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffconway/2021/02/11/jake-from-state-farm-actor-kevin-miles-from-sleeping-in-his-car-to-starring-in-super-bowl-commercials/

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