With his leading role as a teenaged social outcast forced to bond with a new Muslim foreign exchange student in the comedy-drama series, “Aliens in America” (CW, 2007), actor Dan Byrd was poised to break out after acting since the age of eight in countless smaller and supporting roles in movies and television. Born Nov. 20, 1985 in Marietta, GA, Byrd felt the acting bug bite when he saw a performance of “Phantom of the Opera.” He started acting in stage productions in Atlanta before landing his first television role, in the series “Any Day Now” (Lifetime, 1998-2002). Like any good working actor, he followed his initial job by landing a number of small roles in series such as “ER” (NBC, 1994- ), “Judging Amy” (CBS, 1999- ), “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” (CBS, 2000- ), and “Boomtown” (NBC, 2002-03), as well as in the feature gig, “28 Days” (2000). Byrd went on to recurring roles in “The Nightmare Room” (WB, 2001) and “State of Grace” (ABC Family, 2001-02) before landing his starring role in “Clubhouse,” (CBS, 2004). As Mike Dougherty, an ordinary kid who lands the dream job of being a batboy for a major league baseball team, the Empires, based on the New York Yankees, Byrd was a standout, but the show was unfortunately short-lived.
After parts in the Stephen King-based television miniseries, “Firestarter 2: Rekindled” (Sci-Fi Channel, 2002) and “Salem’s Lot” (TNT, 2004) Byrd returned to feature films, beginning with “Cinderella Story” (2004), as Carter, the nerdy friend of lead Hilary Duff, who has a penchant for wearing elaborate costumes. He next appeared in the horror thriller “The Hills Have Eyes” (2006), playing Billy, the young son of a doomed family stalked by mutated desert dwellers, as well as in the limited-release suspense thriller “Lonely Hearts” (2006), playing the son of a police investigator played by John Travolta. In “Aliens in America,” Byrd played Justin, the decidedly unpopular son of Franny (Amanda Pietz) who was once popular in high school and takes it upon herself to boost her son’s coolness factor by bringing in a suave foreign exchange student to shake things up. What no one counts on is that the student would be Raja, a Muslim Pakistani, played by Adhir Kalyan, who promises to make Justin’s already awkward life more challenging.