After two decades in the entertainment industry, Avan Jogia has definitely learned a thing or two.
Getting his start in Hollywood early on Nickelodeon’s Victorious and later the teen drama Twisted, it was a bit of a whirlwind getting spit out of the “kids’ television program machine,” as the 34-year-old actor describes it. Though it took some time, Jogia eventually realized he has full control “to navigate where I want this ship to go,” choosing roles and directing films that truly resonate with him.
“[After] 20 years of having been making stuff, I might be arriving at what my boundaries are,” he tells The Hollywood Reporter. “It takes a long time, not just time elapsed, but inside yourself to be like, ‘Maybe I do deserve to decide how I want to make and what I want to make.’ And so I’ve arrived at that part of the play.”
Jogia’s now diving into projects that lean into world-building and allow characters to exist beyond “the very narrow window of human expression,” he says. That’s exactly why the Prime Video romantic psychological thriller 56 Days caught his attention and saw him star opposite Dove Cameron earlier this year. And it’s why he jumped at the opportunity to work with Kane Parsons on his Backrooms film, which released Friday.
