Tad Hilgenbrink

Though classically trained, Tad Hilgenbrink is best known for his starring roles in raunchy comedies and grisly horror movies. After earning a BFA in Musical Theater from Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois, he traveled abroad to study Shakespeare in London, England. This lead to a booming stage career in New York, yet Hilgenbrink felt the pull of Los Angeles and its promise of movie stardom. He headed west, but imposed a strict ultimatum: if he did not make it in two weeks, he'd go back east and back to theater. As fate would have it, he not only won the Showcase Showdown on the price-guessing game show "The Price is Right," but also scored the lead role in the crude teen-comedy "American Pie Presents Band Camp," a spin-off of the wildly popular coming-of-age comedy "American Pie." His broad comedic performance led to roles in two of spoof-makers Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer's genre-skewering comedies, "Epic Movie" and "Disaster Movie." When not mugging for outlandish comedies, Hilgenbrink can often be seen fleeing a merciless killer. In "Lost Boys: The Tribe," the long-rumored sequel to the 1980s vampire drama "The Lost Boys," Hilgenbrink plays an orphaned surfer seeking to free his sister of her vampire tendencies by killing the head vampire. This led to a supporting role in the horror-thriller "Amusement" and the lead in the horror-fan slasher "The Hills Run Red," in which he portrays a horror movie buff who seeks the world's scariest movie but instead finds its murderous inspiration.