Born in Alaska where his dad was stationed in the Army after serving in the first Gulf War, actor Khleo Thomas has in his short career developed into a promising young talent. With only a few films under his belt to date, Thomas has gone from complete unknown to sought-after commodity in a short span of time. Originally named Khaleed Leon Thomas, the young actor shortened his name—a combination of his first and middle names—when he started acting in commercials at the age of 6.
Thomas grew up in a culturally diverse family—his mother was from Morocco and spoke five languages. Thomas and his siblings—two brothers, Khadeem and Khamle, and a sister, Khaleea—were exposed to Judaism and Islam by way of their mother, Christianity from their father. After appearing in a few commercials, Thomas made his debut as a child guest on Bill Cosby’s “Kids Say the Darndest Things” (CBS, 1997-2000). He then had a small role in “Friday After Next” (2002) before going back to the small screen.
Thomas appeared as Jordan in an episode of “City Guys” (NBC, 1997-2001), a comedy about the friendship between two transfer students at Manhattan High School, one African-American from the inner city, the other a Caucasian from Park Avenue. In ‘ER’ (NBC, 1994- ), he played Brian in the episode “Forgive and Forget”. He also appeared in the movie-of-the-week, “Going to the Mat” (Disney Channel, 2004), about a 14 year-old blind musician who joins the wrestling team in order to cope with culture shock.
Segueing back into films, Thomas starred in the critically acclaimed Disney film, “Holes” (2003). As Zero, Thomas played a denizen of Camp Green Lake, a detention center for kids where the inmates are forced by a menacing warden to dig holes in order to build character. Nobody knows the real reason they're digging holes, but they soon begin to question why the warden is so interested in anything "special" about they find. In “Walking Tall” (2004), Thomas got to star opposite his self-proclaimed hero, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. And in “Baadasssss!” (2004), Thomas starred as a young Mario Van Peebles in the latter’s semi-autobiographical telling of the making of Melvin Van Peeble’s blaxsploitation phenomenon, “Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song” (1971).