Yorkville native makes TV debut

YORKVILLE – Viewers from all over soon will see more of one Yorkville native on the small screen.

Carter Shimp, who grew up in Yorkville but now lives in Chicago after graduating from Yorkville High School in May, recently made his television debut in the “Chicago Med” episode “Never Going Back to Normal,” which aired Sept. 25. After that, and starring in short films, he’s only getting started in his performing career.

During a chat with the Record Newspapers on Oct. 13, Shimp, 19, said it all started with landing a child role in Yorkville High School’s production of “The Music Man” in 2013. Until then, he said, he had always participated in basketball and baseball, and his whole family had always been involved in athletics, but he always liked singing.

Shimp said he remembered being mesmerized by the upperclassmen working on “The Music Man” production.

“I thought that was really interesting,” Shimp said. “I had never been exposed to that before. I always loved movies and everything, but I never really particularly thought about pursuing anything other than baseball.”

Shimp said he started to solely get into the performing arts by eighth grade and started to realize that he had a passion for the activity. Slowly but surely, his sense of belonging in the world of acting grew, he said.

“It wasn’t necessarily 100% about the acting, it was ... ‘this just feels right for now,’” Shimp said. “And then, as I continued through high school and met people, it really encouraged [participating in acting] and I really fell in love with the acting part of it.”

Shimp said he got an agent in January though Gray Talent Group while he was still in high school. He said that was after many open video audition submissions starting from the beginning of high school.

Although he wasn’t expecting anything to happen, Shimp said, the agency finally brought him on board after he submitted “Desolation,” a 2018 short film directed by Gianna Capra that Shimp starred in. He said being in the film itself was a big deal for him and his performing career.

“I didn’t have much on my résumé” at the time, Shimp said. “I didn’t have a head shot. ... I wasn’t a professional anything at that point. All I had on my résumé was high school theater and [Capra] took a chance on me in that way.”

Shimp said he was on screen for maybe about five minutes in the aforementioned episode of “Chicago Med,” and filming for the episode took four days. He said he also got to work with award-winning actress Kathy Baker during the episode, and it was a vote of confidence for him to know that producers thought that he could keep up with the likes of her – and he still reaches out to her to pick her brain from time to time.

“She’s probably the biggest thing that’s happened for me careerwise so far,” Shimp said.

Shimp said another call came Oct. 11 that could help propel his acting career forward. He said the most recent role he landed after “Chicago Med” was playing a younger version of Ben Whishaw’s character in flashback scenes for season four of “Fargo,” which started filming last week and is set to air next year.

Like “Chicago Med,” Shimp said, the cast of the new season of “Fargo” also is stacked and features stars he has grown up seeing on television, including comedian and actor Chris Rock.

“It’s really intimidating,” Shimp said.

Upon reflecting on what – or who – got Shimp to this point in the first place, he said, he has now-retired Yorkville High School English teacher and drama director Colleen Konop and choir director David Smith to thank. He said Konop allowed him to be as serious as he wanted to be, particularly whenever he wanted to do deeper dives into any character he’s playing, and Smith would always be encouraging and supportive, especially whenever he doubted himself and his decision to pursue acting.

Shimp said he would want to encourage students who might want to pursue a similar dream as his to just keep showing up, even after many an audition, good or bad.

“If you love something, there’s nothing that can stop you from that,” Shimp said.