What can you tell me about Kyle Bornheimer from “Family Tools”?
—Nia Spiridakos, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Bornheimer, 37, says he always knew he wanted to work in movies, but his original plan was to be a writer or director, until he discovered that he actually had a shot as an actor.
“I got into some classes and I was good enough to keep at it,” says the Mishawaka, Ind.-born actor. “I put the writing and directing stuff away because I wasn’t getting anywhere with that. With acting, I said, ‘Let me do commercials,’ and I took it each step after that. Once you start doing it, and you are half-way decent, you fall in love with it.”
Bornheimer has several commercials on his resumé, including spots for Geico, Staples, Imodium and T-Mobile, but it was a Coors Light ad that made him a familiar face on TV.
“It was my third or fourth job,” he recalls. “I can’t tell you what the commercial was about. I just know they said, ‘Show up, stand in front of the green screen, and say the word “big.”’ And then it played all over.”
But his big breakthrough was being cast in the 2008 critically acclaimed, but short-lived CBS series, “Worst Week.”
Following that, Bornheimer starred in two 2010 releases, “You Again” and “She’s Out of My League.” Additional film credits include “Blades of Glory,” “Bachelorette” and “The Big Wedding.”
On TV, Bornheimer was cast as a series regular in two comedy series in 2010, “Perfect Couples” and “Romantically Challenged,” neither of which made it. His other television credits include guest-starring roles on “The Office,” “Party Down” and “Breaking Bad.” Now he is the star of “Family Tools.”
Of his role as the career-challenged Jack Shea in the ABC series, he says, “I like watching people that don’t know that they’ve forgotten that they failed the first time and they do it again. You’re watching this innocent do it again, run into the same screen door and then just get right back up. I think that’s really fun to play because you can hit the reset button and commit.”
Bornheimer lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two sons.
