‘It’s different. It’s exciting’: How a former college baseball player found his love for acting
By Quanecia Fraser
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OMAHA, Nebraska (KETV) — Another Omaha native is finding a new home on the big screen.
Alex Mortensen has gone from playing baseball at the University of Nebraska Omaha and Millard North High School to landing appearances in shows like “Yellowstone” and “The Rookie: Feds” on ABC.
From his days hitting home runs at UNO, Mortensen is used to having eyes on him. But now, those eyes are through millions of screens.
“Day in and day out, it’s different. It’s exciting and I have no clue what’s going to happen,” Mortensen said.
In the past few years, Mortensen has found himself landing several small roles in Hollywood.
In this season of “The Rookie: Feds,” Mortensen said he “was playing a drug dealing bad guy who was labeled as a white supremacist, and their cohort of a group of people who are really in the thick of this thing were effectively being spied on by an undercover agent.”
Mortensen said his love for acting came from trying to overcome an inner obstacle: “My first experience on stage was when I was 24 and I jumped into an acting class because I was trying to combat my fear of public speaking.”
Since then, he’s not only appeared in “The Rookie: Feds” and “Yellowstone,” but several shorts, too.
“I have no idea if anything will bring a larger opportunity, or if this is it, so it’s really just about enjoying day in and day out,” Mortensen said.
Like baseball, he urges aspiring actors to swing away when there’s an opportunity.
“If you got a chance and you got something that you really love, go learn about it. Learning about it can get you that much closer to potentially doing it,” he said. “Go grab a phone, go grab anything and just start recording, get in front of the camera.”
Along with acting, Mortensen does voiceovers for audiobooks and commercials. Mortensen said he’ll also be on an episode of NCIS in January, and has a small part in a Netflix movie coming out in the future.
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