Actor Nate Hartley Has Fans, Family in Monongalia County

By The Dominion Post, Morgantown, W.Va.

Mar. 20–He may not be from here, but Nate Hartley — who stars as the painfully skinny Wade in the upcoming movie “Drillbit Taylor” — certainly has a large fan club.

The Ravenna, Ohio, native has family across Monongalia County, mainly in the western end — his grandmother, Audrey Carrico, lives in the Jake’s Run area, as does uncle Hugo Carrico and his wife, Tammy.

“And lots and lots of cousins,” said Maggie Malvito, a cousin herself, who lives in the Morgantown area.

Born Jan. 7, 1992, Hartley knew from an early age that he wanted to be a performer, Malvito said.

He got his start by going to clown school, but soon realized that acting was his passion.

So two years ago, his mom left her job as an Ohio public school principal and took her son to California to follow his dreams of fame and fortune.

Since then, Malvito said, Hartley has been lucky — and talented — enough to score several roles. But it’s his role in “Drillbit Taylor,” opening Friday and co-starring Owen Wilson, that could be his big break.

“He’s done the ‘Bernie Mac Show’ and ‘iCarly’ and ‘The Great Buck Howard’ — TV and movies,” Malvito said. “This will be his fifth movie, but it’s his first real big one. This could be the one that shoots his career forward.”

“Drillbit Taylor” is the story of three awkward boys who find themselves the target of the school’s most brutal bully.

In an effort to protect themselves, they scour the Internet for bodyguards, turning up Drillbit Taylor, a supposed ex-Army Ranger who claims to have the skills the boys so desperately need.

While many family members will have attended the movie’s premiere in Canton, Ohio, Wednesday, Malvito said she and other family members — along with a whole mess of friends — will be going to see it Saturday.

“There’s probably about 22 of us going together,” she said.

Unfortunately, Hartley’s proud grandmother Audrey Carrico won’t be going along — she’s been ill and in the hospital for almost a month.

But that doesn’t mean she won’t be thinking of her “movie star” grandson this weekend.

“He’s definitely grandma’s boy, too. She’s just so proud,” Malvito said, adding that she couldn’t be happier for Hartley herself. “He’s a great kid. He was always so funny. I wish him so much luck.”

But Malvito isn’t the only one who thinks her cousin has the comedic chops to hold his own with Owen Wilson. Several movie critics have written positive reviews of the film so far, Roger Moore of The Orlando Sentinel noting, “Every generation needs its ‘My Bodyguard,’ its ‘Three O’Clock High,’ a comeof-age/face-your-bullies comedy about boys being boys being beaten up by other boys. Thus, ‘Drillbit Taylor’ — a laugh-out-loud riff on just that subject, just those boys and one fearsomely psychotic bully.”

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