Steven Boyer on Admiring Ferris Bueller, Mugging for Martin Scorsese & Playing Hand to God's Twisted Teen

Age: 35

Hometown: Columbus, OH

Current Role: Religious teen Jason, whose foul-mouthed hand puppet, Tyrone, takes on a devilish life of its own in the Broadway premiere of Robert Askins' Hand to God.

Stage & Screen Cred: Boyer has been with Hand to God since the play's first reading over four years ago. He made his Broadway debut in I'm Not Rappaport, and starred off-Broadway in Modern Terrorism, The Explorers Club and King Lear. His film and TV credits include stints in The Wolf of Wall Street and Orange Is the New Black.

“I was a hyper kid. I did impressions and told a lot of jokes. I was the comedian in my family, and I couldn’t just tell a story. I had to ‘do’ the people. It started with impersonation and mimicry, but deepened into something more real.”

“High school was a chance to reinvent myself. I decided early on I wasn’t going to conform to any of the groups in high school. I was going to be friends with everyone in every group. I wanted to be Ferris Bueller.”

“During Leonardo DiCaprio’s monologue [in The Wolf of Wall Street], I had to come up with something to do because I was in the shot. It ended up being like a silent film comedy performance. My mugging helped me get into the film."

“I proposed to my wife Emily at the first NBA game either of us had ever been to. It wasn’t like, ‘Baby, basketball’s been a part of our love from the beginning.’ It was ironic. She wanted me to surprise her, so I knew that doing it on a kiss-cam would do it.”

“I knew Hand to God was legitimately funny when I read it for the first time. But then the climax is horrifying. I love a story that can go from piss-your-pants laughter to sheer terror to real heartfelt cathartic emotion. It’s the Grand Guignol of modern plays.”

“My parents were OK with me being an actor because they knew that if it didn’t happen, I would go insane. I would’ve become an accountant. And I'd have been that weird accountant who has a puppet show while you’re doing your taxes.”