Sean Nelson

Bronx-born Sean Nelson turned 13 shortly before beginning principal photography on his debut film, writer-director Boaz Yakin's "Fresh" (1994). Prior to that, he had made his TV debut in a 1992 episode of the NBC series "Here and Now" and appeared off-Broadway in a production of "Hey Little Walter" at Playwrights Horizons, but neither of these efforts presaged the impressive performance to come in "Fresh." Though he had little dialogue as the savvy Brooklyn street kid who works after school as a drug runner, Nelson appeared in practically every scene, garnering rave notices for his harrowing portrait of an incredibly resourceful, tragically deprived child who applies the rules of chess to real life. A blank slate most of the time, Fresh finally cracks after enacting retribution against the system destroying the lives of those he loves. This haunting last image of lost innocence, shattered by the carnage he has precipitated, is what stayed with audiences, serving notice that this was an actor to watch.