{"id":2010,"date":"2023-05-27T23:45:48","date_gmt":"2023-05-28T03:45:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2022-2023\/?p=2010"},"modified":"2023-06-07T13:10:57","modified_gmt":"2023-06-07T17:10:57","slug":"alexandria-meets-outer-banks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2022-2023\/2023\/05\/27\/alexandria-meets-outer-banks\/","title":{"rendered":"Alexandria Meets ‘Outer Banks’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Interview with ‘Outer Banks’ and ‘Jessie Star’ Charles Esten<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\n

Salma El Gourchal and Andres Huenneke<\/p>\nStaff Writers<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Whether he\u2019s playing fun Hollywood director dad as Morgan Ross from “Jessie” or a power-hungry dad who is willing to risk everything in pursuit of wealth as Ward Cameron from “Outer Banks,” actor, and ACHS alumnus Charles Esten is sure to leave an impression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Esten, known as Chip among friends and family, was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1965, then moved to his mom\u2019s hometown, Alexandria. Esten attended Matthew Maury (now Naomi L. Brooks) and Lyles-Crouch Elementary Schools, and Parker-Gray Middle School. He also attended George Washington High School (now a middle school) for his freshman year before completing high school at T.C Williams (now ACHS). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Charles \u2018Chip\u2019 Esten flashes a smile in his senior year yearbook photo<\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Esten, a class of 1983 graduate, looks back to his memories of growing up in Alexandria with nostalgia. He described his deep love for the city and reminisced on his frequent walks to Old Town after school with friends. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI consider it to be a blessing to be from there\u201d, Esten said, holding the city close to his heart wherever he goes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Esten had nothing but positive words to describe his time at T.C. \u201cIt felt like a community…I didn’t feel lost, the teachers and the administration all established the vibe of the place, and they were awesome.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He described T.C. as having typical cliques but explained that even those who were different from each other got along well. Esten recalled his \u201cgreat group of friends\u201d that helped him throughout high school. He was also highly involved in Titan athletics and clubs; he played varsity football, was a pole vaulter, and was a member of the Key Club. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Esten poses as Julius Caesar on the senior class homecoming float<\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

He poked fun at his high school life as well. \u201cI was a bit of a troublemaker at school,\u201d Esten recalled. He described T.C. as a melting pot of different cultures and backgrounds where people were constantly learning from one another. \u201cI loved it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Growing up, Esten was always interested in the Arts, though never really took his passion seriously until a significant moment of his life in High School: The T.C. Williams Student Talent Shows. \u201cThe talent shows were the real deal man; these places were packed,\u201d he said. Whether it was cracking jokes to the audience or singing the song \u201cDream\u201d by the Waverly Brothers with friend and fellow actor Kieran Mulroney– brother of actor Dermot Mulroney (also a T.C. Alum and English teacher Taki Sidley\u2019s childhood best friend), Esten loved the feeling of making people feel emotions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cThat became something I was addicted to whether it was acting or comedy or music,\u201d Esten stated. \u201cT.C. Williams was the place that made it for me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Esten has acted in many shows on top of “Jessie” and “Outer Banks.” Most notable are” Nashville,” “Whose Line is it Anyway?,” and “The Office,” with “Nashville” being his favorite to act in due to his role infusing both music and acting. Esten was always out working hard and constantly learning to become the best that he can be, and it was obvious the work was paying off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Esten faced a major setback when his daughter was diagnosed with cancer. For three years,\u00a0 there were constant trips from home to chemotherapy which required a lot of focus from him. \u201cIn LA there were a lot of jobs that I wanted but I couldn\u2019t get, and I was upset with those at the time. But, when my daughter was diagnosed, it made me realize how minuscule everything else was,\u201d he said. \u201c<\/strong>That setback made me realize that life brings things to you that you can\u2019t be prepared for.\u201d He and his family were able to work through it, and his daughter is healthy now.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On top of acting, Charles Esten is a musician as well. \u201cI was always singing when my mom took me through the grocery store when I was younger,\u201d he said. Esten also recalled how in third grade there was a contest to create a new song for his elementary school to change a Disney song into a school song and ended up winning, making the Maury school song. While attending William and Mary for college, he lost his grandma and he turned to music to cope. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI poured my heart out and I felt that I really tapped into her and it really opened me up\u2026When my family members heard it, it healed them [as well.]\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
From left, actor and Titan Alumnus Kieran Mulroney and Chip Esten perform at a school talent show<\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Around that time, he met and organized a band with fellow classmates at William and Mary \u201c…and it took off from there.\u201d Currently, regarding music, Esten has some big news to share: \u201cAs ‘Outer Banks’ was winding down, I focused on music and I have an album coming out soon and the first single is now out!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Esten is optimistic about the future of acting. “As I came up in acting you had to go to Los Angeles or New York and get a network show and audition there but now you have your phone\u2026 Write if you wanna be an actor– write some scenes for yourself. You can go out and do things for yourself so there is no excuse,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t say that there\u2019s no way to act.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Correction<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Esten’s wife had cancer, instead of his daughter. Theogony<\/em> sincerely apologizes for this mistake, which has been corrected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

June 7, 2023<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All photos courtesy of Charles Esten<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whether he\u2019s playing fun Hollywood director dad as Morgan Ross from “Jessie” or a power-hungry dad who is willing to risk everything in pursuit of wealth as Ward Cameron from “Outer Banks,” actor, and ACHS alumnus Charles Esten is sure to leave an impression.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":2110,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[40,590,592,591,589,586,593,588,587],"class_list":["post-2010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-alexandria","tag-alum","tag-alumni","tag-alumnus","tag-local-legend","tag-outer-banks","tag-tc-williams-high-school","tag-television","tag-tv"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2022-2023\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/c.esten_.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2022-2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2022-2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2022-2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2022-2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2022-2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2010"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2022-2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2126,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2022-2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2010\/revisions\/2126"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2022-2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2022-2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2022-2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2022-2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}