Tyler Lepley
| Tyler Lepley | |
|---|---|
| Born |
March 24, 1987 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Residence | Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Other names |
|
| Alma mater | Kutztown University |
| Occupation | |
| Years active | 2009–present |
Tyler Lepley (March 24, 1987) is an American actor, best known for his portrayal of Benjamin "Benny" Young on the Tyler Perry produced The Have and the Have Nots; which is the first scripted television series to air on the Oprah Winfrey Network.
Lepley was born and raised in Philadelphia by his mother and stepfather, who has been in his life since the age of 6. Lepley is Italian on his mother's side and Jamaican on his biological father's side. Lepley revealed that he was teased as a child because he was the only black kid in his school. He graduated from Central Bucks High School West in Doylestown. Lepley did several sports including track, football, basketball, karate -- as a young child -- and boxing but focused more on football as he got older. Lepley played football in high school under the name Tyler Dinnis. In June 2003, he suffered an injury which nearly ended his football career and later underwent surgery. By the summer of 2004, Lepley was back on the field and was selected as the MVP at sports camp for Villanova University. He attended Kutztown University on a football scholarship. Lepley played football for the university until the fall of 2007 when he and another player were suspended for fighting. While Lepley was reinstated to the college, his football career was over and he was charged with a misdemeanor. Lepley went on to graduate from Kutztown in 2010 with a degree in criminal justice. But because of his record, Lepley could not find a job in the field. Instead, he found work as gas station attendant, at sandwich shop and also worked as a bookie. Knowing it would not end well, Lepley accepted a friend's offer to relocate to Los Angeles in 2011 and found work as a personal trainer at Iron Fitness Gym in Santa Monica.
About three months after he settled in Los Angeles, Lepley was discovered by a producer at a boxing gym who invited him to audition. From that meeting, he booked a lead role in an independent horror movie, Slumber Party Slaughter. Lepley, reluctantly took his agent's advice to get serious about acting and enrolled in acting classes and he soon made appearances in CBS's CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and The CW's 90210. In 2013, he booked the role of Benny on Tyler Perry's The Haves and the Have Nots after a four month long casting process. Lepley was quite surprised when Perry came to the audition dressed as his famous Madea character because he was shooting a movie at the time. Lepley also appeared in the 2013 comedy Baggage Claim starring Paula Patton. In early 2016, Lepley booked the lead role of Jaxon in the made for television film, produced by Swirl Films Ringside, directed by Russ Parr. The film premiered in September 2016 TV One. His costars included Everybody Hates Chris actor Tequan Richmond and R&B singer Sevyn Streeter.
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