Mike Pepino: A Profile Story

While walking across the Camden County campus one morning, Mike Pepino happened to see a sign that read Open Auditions For The Crucible. Pepino had no prior acting experience, but he was a fan of the play and decided to audition. He won the part of Giles Corey, thereby thrusting him down a path that would shape the rest of his life. Michael Angelo Pepino, 57, was born on March 27, 1950 in Philadelphia, PA, where he lived until he was a teenager. His family then moved across the river to New Jersey, where Pepino attended Pennsauken High School. Upon graduating, he spent two years at Camden County College, where he met his inspiration for acting, a man named Dennis Flyer. Flyer was the head of the theatre department at Camden County, and the reason Pepino played Corey in The Crucible. After performing in a few more plays for Flyer, he helped Pepino get into The American Academy of Dramatic Arts, a distinguished university in New York City. When asked about his motivation for pursuing acting full-time, Pepino replied, [Flyer] told me I was really goodso I believed him. While Mike Pepino became an actor in the end, it wasnt always his intended path. His family had a horseracing business, and it would have been very easy for him to work for his family. It was right there, he said. I had the job laid out in front of me, but I decided that acting was the way to go. Plus I didnt like getting up at 5:00 in the morning everyday.

His first professional acting job came the year after he graduated, in 1975. It was for Summer Stock, a full-time theatre company in Salem, NH. The company uses the same actors the entire summer, who put on a different play every week. It was extremely challenging, Pepino said, but a tremendous learning experience. After finishing his stay with Summer Stock, Mike Pepino went on to take various jobs in theatre, and eventually and in commercials. Pepino said the most challenging role he had was playing Cyrano de Bergerac in the play of the same name. It was a Sunday morning and it was being aired live on KYW in Philadelphia. The director told us that there would be no cuts, saying Whatever happens happens. Cyrano de Bergerac is famous for his nose, which is obnoxiously large, and Pepino happened to forget nose putty on the day of the shoot. I was scrambling, he exclaimed, so I grabbed some window putty and put it on. Everything was fine until right before I was to go on, when my nose started to get very hot. The putty began to eat the skin off of my nose, just as I went onstage. As I began my performance the nose started to fall off, so I had to do the whole thing staring at the ceiling, balancing the nose. Pepino managed to keep the nose on the entire time, but it was a close call. Mike Pepino has performed both on stage and on television numerous times, and when asked which format he preferred, his answer was immediate. Stage, he replied, hands down. When you are on stage, you dont worry about critics. The audience tells you whether you are good or bad. When you come out from your

curtain call, and everyone claps a little bit louder than they did for everybody else, you know youre good. After pursuing a career in acting for eight years, Pepino was offered a chance to do something new. He gave his friend a ride to a relatives house, and was invited to stay for dinner. That relative was Steve Horn, who, at the time, had the number one production company in country. It was a matter of being in the right place at the right time. [Horn] asked me if Id ever done any casting, and I said no. He asked me if I wanted to try it out, and I said sure. I had no idea it would shape the future of my career. Pepino joined Steve Horn Productions as the staff casting director, where he remained for a few years. He joined up with a couple other casting directors after that but decided that he would prefer to be self-employed; the result was Mike Pepino Casting. I liked the idea of being a casting director, Pepino said. Its nice to give struggling artists a chance to make money. He continued to act for a short time while he was casting, but eventually the casting took over, and his career as a casting director continues to this day. When asked which he preferred, acting or casting, it was tough for him to answer. It was difficult to give up acting, he said, but I wanted to raise a family and have a house and pay bills, and acting is not the job for that.