A New Star in the Disney Sky
Nils Allen Stewart, Jr., who goes by Boo Boo, is a thirteen-year-old who's already racked up a sizeable list of professional performance credits. He sings, acts and dances and is continually on the lookout for new skills that might come in handy. At present though, he's intent on promoting his singing career. He performs with the group T-Squad and on a Disney-backed album that debuts this month.
T-Squad has been compared to a young Black Eyed Peas, with the style described as friendly, pop urban music. The group has recorded the song "Vertical" for the movie "Jump In" and the song "Second Star" for the re-release of "Peter Pan". Boo Boo is quite proud, and deservedly so, of the album and of his fellow performers. He said, "We all have solos. We're all evenly matched."
Evenly matched on a recording, though, is one thing; live performances are another. "Sometimes I get nervous right before I go onstage." Boo Boo is savvy enough to know that the best preparations can't prevent mistakes now and then. "Your heart sort of stops but you just keep on going." He picked up that advice from his father, a professional stunt coordinator.
In fact, Boo Boo and his three sisters have all grown up practicing stunts - high falls, to be precise. Performing runs in the family, it seems. And although a career in stunt work is still on the table, Boo Boo was sidetracked into acting when he tagged along on an audition with his older sister. It's an age-old tale: he ended up with a bit part. That part changed his direction.
Previously, his focus had been martial arts. He'd already been competing for some time and had run away with the World Championships in karate two years in a row. (He's good enough to have been inducted into the Junior USA Martial Arts Hall of Fame.) Competition was nothing new.
He was accustomed to buckling down and working hard for a goal. The movie role simply served to make him aware of all the skills he might one day need. He plunged right in to voice and dance training. Not initially knowing what he'd like best, he dabbled in ballet, hip-hop, tap, jazz and break dancing and credits ballet as being the base. "Ballet's pretty hard. It's pretty physical."
"It's helped me with my center. Mainly balance." As might be expected from a thirteen-year-old with two martial arts titles, his physicality onstage involves lots of jumps and flips. He said, "You need the balance when you land." And since he also needed the professionalism and some slick moves, he studied (among others) with Brian Friedman of "So You Think You Can Dance" fame.
For sheer entertainment value, Boo Boo said break dancing and hip-hop win the prize but there are other styles he'd like to tackle. He admitted that once he saw Antonio Banderas in the movie "Take the Lead", he decided he'd love some private lessons in "...ballroom dancing, because it's so different." Specifically, he'd love to learn "the quick step. It seems like the most upbeat." Of course, he wants Antonio to personally conduct those private lessons.
And who knows? Maybe one day soon he'll add ballroom to his credits. Already, he's done numerous television commercials, print campaigns, television shows ("Everybody Hates Chris," "ER" and "Dante's Cove"), movies ("Conrad Boys "and "666: The Child") and is touring to promote his upcoming T-Squad album. And if that's not enough, he recently completed filming "Beowulf", a Robert Zemeckis film starring Angelina Jolie, Anthony Hopkins, Robin Wright Penn and John Malkovich.
Add Steven Seagal, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Eminem to the list of stars he knows. He's even taught karate to Adam Sandler. Although it's fun working with and meeting big names, Boo Boo aspires to his own stardom. He said, "I want to be starring in a huge, big budget action movie with Tom Cruise. "Mission Impossible IV." He'd probably do the stunts, too.
In the middle of all this hoopla, Boo Boo maintains stellar educational standards. As a member of the "Gate" academically gifted children program, he plans to use his education, like everything else, to his advantage. As he said, "...you don't want to be dumb. You have to learn to handle your money."
It almost feels ridiculous asking a thirteen-year-old what he's most proud of, but Boo Boo answered, "I'm most proud of my career." And why not? How many thirteen-year-olds have already won awards, been inducted into a Hall of Fame, filmed movies, television shows and commercials, and taught karate to movie stars? With the debut of T-Squad's album, Disney may see Boo Boo as their newest star, but they'd better have a firm hold because his orbit is rapidly expanding.