DREW SEELEY is that rare actor who may be known more for his voice and songwriting skills than his face. It’s what happens when you co-write songs like “Getcha Head in the Game,” which became part of the legendary “” soundtrack in 2005 and earned an Emmy ® nomination. He’s also toured the country as one of the lead singers of the R&B group Nu Ground. But things are about to change for the Toronto-born Seeley, who turns 28 on April 30. He’s prepping to strike out on his own in recording a solo album (his first) of his own pop- rock tunes. And in front of the camera, he’s beginning to land the leading man roles he’s always coveted, most recently in the new Hallmark Channel Original Movie “Freshman Father,” which premieres Saturday, June 5 (9p.m. ET/PT, 8C). Inspired by a true story, the film finds Seeley portraying a Harvard University freshman forced to care for a baby on his own while attending Ivy League classes. The following piece is available for all press uses, with photos, from Crown Features Syndicate™.

DREW SEELEY: MORE THAN JUST ANOTHER PRETTY VOICE

Crown Features Syndicate™

Drew Seeley is an actor, a singer, a dancer and a songwriter. He wants to make that clear from the outset when speaking with someone new who may not be entirely familiar with his multi- faceted career arc. It doesn’t come out of his mouth in a boastful way; it’s more matter-of-fact, as if this is just what happens to every guy who was born in Toronto, moves to Orlando before high school and then hits Los Angeles after college.

And maybe it is.

“I’ve been really lucky so far, knock on wood,” Seeley, who turns 28 on April 30, admits. “I’ve been able to do a lot of stuff at a young age. Had some amazing experiences already. The cool part is that I’m just getting warmed up.”

And what a warm up it’s been. It started when Seeley began dancing as a kid growing up in Ontario, when he fell in love with the stage. Then at 11, he got cast in Hal Prince’s Canadian revival of Showboat , a production which brought him song-and-dance work for a year.

Seeley’s theatrical breakout continued while attending Lake Brantley High School in Orlando. He also sang as the front man for the R&B act Nu Ground from 1999-2002. And then came his biggest break, when he began working with producer Ray Cham and they wound up co-writing the tune “Getcha Head in the Game” for the “High School Musical” soundtrack in 2005.

It all evolved into Seeley’s participation in the North American and Latin American tours of “High School Musical: The Concert,” which filled 60,000-seat stadiums back in 2007.

“We played 42 dates in the U.S. and another month in South America during that tour, which I

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got to do because (“High School Musical” star) was filming ‘Hairspray’ at the time.” Seeley notes. “I got to meet Michael Jackson. It was all just so surreal. The screaming was so intense from the crowds that we had to wear earbuds just to hear ourselves think.

“And you know, what’s really amazing is even the crowds in South America who can’t speak English knew every single word to every song. I mean it. I couldn’t believe it. You come back from an experience like that and you think, ‘Wow, I want more!’.”

But we’ll get back to Seeley’s musical career in a minute. First, there is his acting life to discuss, a livelihood that has started to earn him leading man attention in films like 2008’s “Another Cinderella Story” and the 2009 Adam Sandler-produced horror flick, “The Shortcut.” And now comes the kid with the golden voice’s most significant acting role to date: As the male lead of the Hallmark Channel Original Movie “Freshman Father,” which premieres Saturday, June 5 (9p.m. ET/PT, 8C).

The film, which is inspired by a true story and co-stars Golden Globe nominee and “Designing Women” star Annie Potts and four-time Daytime Emmy winner Kim Zimmer, finds Seeley portraying John Patton, a kid with a full scholarship to Harvard University who finds his world turned upside-down when he suddenly has to care for his baby son during his freshman year.

That baby’s mom is John’s high school sweetheart, Kathy (Britt Irvin), who he married before they packed up for Cambridge. But the pressure sends their marriage into a free-fall, and Kathy, convinced she is a poor mother, ditches John shortly after their baby arrives.

“One Man and a Baby,” anyone?

“The coolest part of this is that it was based on the story of a real guy, who did this in the 1970s – and I met him during the shoot and got to hang with him,” Seeley recalls. “The kid is like 40 now. And the guy came through it, which is incredible when you consider he had to survive the program at an Ivy League school at a time when there were far less resources available for someone like him than there are now.

“I was scared to death the day he came to the set. But luckily, the guy was as thrilled to have us tell his story as I was to be interpreting it. He was just the sweetest guy, too, which is a relief considering how much pressure it is to be playing a real, living person. It can be pretty freaky.”

Besides the fact it was shot in his hometown of Toronto, what made the production particularly memorable for Seeley was working with babies, who because of their needs and wants automatically become the center of everything on the set.

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As is usually the case, the baby “actors” were six-week-old twins. (It’s always necessary to have twins so you can still shoot if one of the infants happens to be cranky or sick that day.) Seeley crammed for his time as an on-screen dad by going to the library and reading baby books that taught, among other things, how to hold one. He practiced with towels, so fearful was he of dropping one of the infants.

“What was amazing, really, is that these little babies really were the best actors on the set,” Seeley remembers. “Seriously! I mean, it was eerie. We never needed to switch them out because one of them was crying. And they would either always start crying or stop when we needed them to before the cameras rolled. These two were born performers.

“There was one time where my character has to take this final exam, and he has to take the baby to the lecture hall. Right when he starts, the baby starts crying – and he freaks! So I start singing ‘The Wheels on the Bus,’ and by the end of the second verse, he’s fast asleep. Two takes, boom, we’re done. How cool is that?”

This was actually Seeley’s second experience with a Hallmark Channel film, his first being a supporting role in the 2007 Valerie Bertinelli-starrer “Claire,” in which he got to portray “a redneck kid who gets his throat slit.” The parts would get significantly better for him from there.

But now, as promised, back to Seeley’s music career, which he’s about to take to the next level. While he has done plenty of singing and performing dating back to the time before he hit puberty, right now he’s recording his first solo album of his own tunes. Seeley describes it as “pop-rock, but with some funk to it as well…a little Jamiroquai and maybe some Maroon 5. There’s punch and there’s edge.”

The most important thing about it for Seeley, though, is that it’s 100 percent his.

“I figure that it’s finally time to bridge that gap and demonstrate that I’ve grown up,” Seeley stresses. “It isn’t attached to any record label, so I haven’t decided yet how I’m going to put it out. The great thing is that I finally have the time, the money and the maturity to do it right, to have the control I want and the sound I want.”

Seeley also is keeping his hand on the stage – and the Broadway stage at that. He portrayed Prince Eric in Disney’s The Little Mermaid on Broadway last summer. “What I love is the instant feedback,” he observes, “how there’s no lag time like you find in movies and albums.”

The bottom line for Seeley, though, is that he can do it all (acting, singing, stage) without having to choose one over the other.

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“I’ve been able to combine all of my acting with projects that are also related to my music somehow, too,” he says. “I guess it’s a way for me to have my cake and eat it, too.”

“Freshman Father” premieres Saturday, June 5 (9p.m. ET/PT, 8C).

Contact: Pam Slay, 818-755-2480

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