Mason Gooding (born November 14, 1996) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in ''

Booksmart ''Booksmart'' is a 2019 American comedy film directed by Olivia Wilde (in her feature directorial debut) and written by Emily Halpern, Sarah Haskins, Susanna Fogel, and Katie Silberman. It stars Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever as two gr ...

'', '' Everything's Gonna Be Okay'' and ''

Love, Victor ''Love, Victor'' is an American teen comedy drama streaming television series created by Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger, inspired by and set in the same world as the 2018 film '' Love, Simon''. The series premiered on June 17, 2020, on H ...

'' and has most recently starred in '' Scream''. He is the son of actor

Cuba Gooding Jr. Cuba Mark Gooding Jr. (born January 2, 1968) is an American actor. He is the recipient of an Academy Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and an Emmy nomination. After his breakthrough role as Tre Styles in '' Boyz n the Hood'' (1991), he appear ...

Early life and education

Gooding was born on November 14, 1996, in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

, to Sara (Kapfer) and

He is the eldest of three children. His paternal grandfather was

Cuba Gooding Sr. Cuba Mark Gooding Sr. (April 27, 1944 – April 20, 2017) was an American singer. He was the most successful lead singer of the soul group The Main Ingredient, replacing former lead singer Donald McPherson who was diagnosed with leukemia i ...

, the former lead singer of R&B band,

The Main Ingredient The Main Ingredient was an American soul and R&B group best known for their 1972 hit song " Everybody Plays the Fool". Early history The group was formed in Harlem, New York City in 1964 as a trio called the Poets, composed of lead singer Do ...

, and his uncle is actor

Omar Gooding Omar Miles Gooding Sr., also known by his stage name, Big OBarbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate ...

. Gooding attended Windward High School in California, where he played varsity football for four years. He graduated in 2015. During high school, his main interests were football and theater. He wanted to begin acting after his graduation, but decided to attend college after visiting his father on set in New York. He enrolled in

New York University Tisch School of the Arts The New York University Tisch School of the Arts (commonly referred to as Tisch) is the performing, cinematic and media arts school of New York University. Founded on August 17, 1965, Tisch is a training ground for artists, scholars of the a ...

to study dramatic writing and psychology. He dropped out during his junior year in order to pursue acting full time.

Career

In 2017, while he was still in college, Gooding found a manager and an agent and started booking roles. He booked his first major acting role in the

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

's dramedy ''

Ballers ''Ballers'' is an American sports comedy drama television series created by Stephen Levinson and starring Dwayne Johnson as Spencer Strasmore, a retired NFL player who must navigate his new career of choice as the financial manager of other NFL ...

'' opposite

Dwayne Johnson Dwayne Douglas Johnson (born May 2, 1972), also known by his ring name The Rock, is an American actor and former professional wrestler. Widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, he was integral to the develop ...

. In 2018, Gooding booked his first major film role in ''Booksmart'' directed by

Olivia Wilde Olivia Jane Cockburn ( ; born March 10, 1984), known professionally as Olivia Wilde, is an American actress and filmmaker. She played Remy "Thirteen" Hadley on the medical-drama television series ''House'' (2007–2012), and has appeared in th ...

in her directorial debut. In 2019, Gooding was cast as Andrew in ''Love, Victor'', the television spinoff of the 2018 film ''

Love, Simon ''Love, Simon'' is a 2018 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Greg Berlanti, written by Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger, and based on the novel '' Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda'' by Becky Albertalli. The film stars Nick Rob ...

''. Originally developed for

Disney+ The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October 1 ...

, the series premiered on

Hulu Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television seri ...

in 2020. While he played football in high school, Gooding had to learn how to play basketball for the role. Gooding also appeared in

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a ...

's Christmas themed romantic comedy ''

Let It Snow "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!", also known as simply "Let It Snow", is a song written by lyricist Sammy Cahn and composer Jule Styne in July 1945 in Hollywood, California, during a heat wave as Cahn and Styne imagined cooler conditions ...

'' later that year. In 2020, he began appearing in Freeform's sitcom, '' Everything's Gonna Be Okay''. In September 2020, Gooding was cast as Chad Meeks-Martin in the fifth ''Scream'' film, which was directed by

Matt Bettinelli-Olpin Matt Bettinelli-Olpin (born February 19, 1978) is an American director, writer, actor, and musician. He is a founding member of the punk band Link 80 and co-creator of the filmmaking collectives Chad, Matt & Rob and Radio Silence. He is best kno ...

and

Tyler Gillett Tyler Gillett is an American film director, cinematographer, writer, and producer. A co-creator of the filmmaking collective Radio Silence, Gillett co-directed, with Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, the horror films '' Devil's Due'' (2014), '' Ready or ...

. The film was released on January 14, 2022. In late August, Gooding co-starred alongside

Kesha Kesha Rose Sebert (; born March 1, 1987), formerly stylized as Ke$ha, is an American singer and songwriter. In 2005, at age 18, Kesha was signed to Kemosabe Records. Her first major success came in early 2009 after she was featured on Americ ...

and

Chloe Bailey Chloe Elizabeth Bailey (born July 1, 1998), also known by her mononymous stage name Chlöe, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She is best known for being one half of the musical duo Chloe x Halle with her sister Halle Bailey. To ...

in the scripted podcast, ''Electric Easy'', a musical neo-noir science fiction show set in a futuristic Los Angeles in which humans struggle to co-exist with robots, known as “electrics”. The show was created by Vanya Asher and executively produced by Kesha. The podcast premiered on August 30, 2021.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gooding, Mason 1996 births Living people 21st-century American male actors African-American male actors American male television actors American people of Barbadian descent American people of German descent Male actors from Los Angeles Tisch School of the Arts alumni