Shawn Lathrop

Living in poverty and abuse, Shawn used humor and his imagination to cope with every day life. When his younger brother was diagnosed with leukemia, he would visit him in the hospital and re-enact the cartoons and TV shows his brother had missed with voice characterizations and narration. He would often entertain his classmates with antics and impromptu voice characterizations to get attention. His first performance was as a lamb in a large-scale Christmas production by the First Church of the Nazarene in Medford, Oregon. Despite the discomfort of wearing white tights in front of an audience of over 200, he was able to perform and was immediately addicted to the spotlight. In high school, his interest in acting waivered and his interest turned to sports, girls and working at a small grocery store. In his senior year, he and a friend were asked to volunteer their carpentry skills to build sets and props for the Phoenix High School Theater Arts Department. This gave him the opportunity t