Portis Hershey

Portis Hershey was born on September 11, 1979 in Seoul, South Korea. His father is African American and his mother is Korean. Being an army brat, Portis bounced between Seoul, Monterrey, Berlin and Barstow the first ten years of his life. From grammar school until his sophomore year in high school, Portis consistently received low grades in his classes while earning high scores in standardized tests. Then in his junior year he decided to take Honors Physics and Honors Chemistry. He says the same teacher taught both of those classes and during the first month of school, the teacher spent the first five minutes of class telling Portis to quit or else he'd kick him out. Portis stuck with it and eventually ended earning a degree in Chemistry at Cornell College. In the science teacher's defense Portis says that he's one of his two favorite teachers he's had. Though Chemistry was on his mind, it was not in his heart. On June 7, 1999 Portis decided to focus his energy into entertainment. Being that he was in Iowa, there were not many entertainment avenues for him-until a year later. While waiting for some friends at Old Navy, a talent agent, the same one that discovered Ashton Kutcher, approached him. Portis participated in Fresh Faces of Iowa in the fall of 2000. However, nothing really panned out after that. Portis graduated from college in May of 2002. Two days after receiving his degree, he was in Los Angeles where he found a job selling Cutco cutlery. He commuted between Barstow and LA until he saved up enough money to stay in Los Angeles. In the beginning of 2003 he did some background work for Sande Alessi. During this time, one of his fellow extras referred him to Dragon Talent Agency. Hershey signed with Dragon on April Fools Day, April 1, 2003. One of his first bookings was a JS (Johnson Sisters) music video, Icecream (2003). Through this video, he had an opportunity to work with director, Dave Meyers and casting director, Anissa Williams. In the video, Portis was getting his hair braided by actress, 'Eboni Renee Jackson' . Two years later (February 2005), Portis reunited with Meyers and Williams for a Sony Playstation Portable commercial. Incidentally, Portis was getting his hair braided in the commercial as well. In addition to the PSP commercial, February 2005 was a busy month for Portis. He also did a German Burger King commercial that spoofed the TV show Pimp My Ride. Though it was not shown in the US, it circulated via the internet on websites such as www.pimpmyburger.com and www.collegehumor.com. Traveling full circle, Portis found himself working with Sande Alessi Casting again, this time playing a pirate for Gore Verbinski's _Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)_ . As of March 2005, Portis is studying under acting coach, Troy Rowland and is still working as a pirate in Pirates of the Caribbean sequel.