By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
OCEAN CITY — Ocean City native David L. Rowell is starring as the romantic interest in a new romantic comedy, “Christmas in Carolina,” with a pair of well-known stars from the TV sitcom “Family Matters” whose experience is helping propel Rowell along in his acting career.
Kellie Shanygne Williams and Darius McCrary, who were siblings Laura and Eddie Winslow on the popular 1990s sitcom, portray siblings again in “Christmas in Carolina,” this time as Rowell’s character’s mother and uncle.
Rowell is Wesley, a former NBA player and CEO of a marketing firm who invites Ella (actor Joslyn Y. Hall) home for the holidays. Ella, according to briefs for the movie, is an investment banker who had given up on love until she meets Wesley.
The movie is available now on Amazon Prime, iTunes, Apple TV and Fandango.
David L. Rowell, also known as DJ Rowell for the foundation he runs, didn’t expect his life to go in this direction.
He moved from Ocean City to South Carolina as a child when his parents split up, but he kept returning for major holidays and summers, which he would spend on the Boardwalk and Simpson Avenue, where his father and grandmother live.
His most recent visit to Ocean City was over the Thanksgiving holiday.
Rowell’s early love was being a basketball player. His life revolved around that, but when it came to an abrupt ending — as he put it, “we divorced” — it opened him up to other opportunities.
He was a communications major with an interest in entertainment who had toured the nation with a country music artist and had interned with Ryan Seacrest (known for hosting “American Idol”). When he got an opportunity to do some acting, he found he was a natural but definitely needed to hone the fundamentals of the craft.
His got his break with “Christmas in Carolina” because he went to high school with the younger sister of the movie’s writer, Stacie Davis. He had taken a broadcasting class with the sister, who suggested to the writer that she talk to Rowell. Davis had not begun to cast yet and Rowell was still touring at the time.
“Her sister mentioned, ‘You should reach out to DJ Rowell. That might be a good start,’” Rowell said. “She looked me up on Instagram and saw the physical appearance fit with (the character) she was writing for and that she wanted him to be a former basketball player” because she wanted that swagger and charisma to come through on camera.
He had that but, he wondered, “could he pull it off on camera?”
After the back-and-forth between the two, Davis liked what she saw and kept building the romantic lead’s character.
Lesser-known actors were involved early on in the process but then they all heard that Kellie S. Williams signed on. She was in the sitcom that ran from 1989 to 1998 and was perhaps best known for Jaleel White, who played Steve Urkel known for the catchphrase, “Did I do that?”
“We were just amazed,” Rowell said about having Williams attached to the movie.
What was funny for him was that he had just done a “Family Matters” skit.
“Wow, how crazy is that? You put that energy into the air and something like that comes back around a month later,” he said.
When that veteran actor signed on, he explained, the newer actors became aware that they would have to perform up to her level. They had to re-audition, but he got the thumbs-up from her and the director, Peggy Williams. Fellow “Family Matters” alum McCrary joined the cast, reuniting him with his sitcom sister, Kellie S. Williams, a fact that has attracted attention to the movie in the entertainment world, including a write-up in Entertainment Weekly.
“Darius was amazing,” Rowell said, “just a breath of fresh air. As he says, ‘I would definitely party with him in a phone booth any day of the week.’ When they say ‘action!,’ you wouldn’t believe the level of expertise that 30 years in the business brings. He was just amazing. It was good to see something like that close up.”
What he learned from working with McCrary was beyond what takes place in an acting class.
“You can’t learn it in an acting class. You can’t talk about it. You have to be around it. You have to be able to see it, be able to feel it, to touch it,” Rowell said about the experience. “He just dropped so many gems of knowledge to the young actors, especially myself.”
Being able to work with McCrary, he said, “is one of those opportunities you wouldn’t pass up for the world.”
In another connection to “Family Matters,” actor Shawn Harrison, who played the silly character “Waldo Faldo” in the sitcom but in real life is earnest about his work, assisted on directing the film and was the acting coach.
“He is a phenomenal acting coach,” Rowell said. “He is very serious about his craft. He is the opposite of what you think he would be because everybody knows him as Waldo.” Instead, Rowell said, Harrison is a consummate professional and workaholic.
He noted that the “Family Matters” alums have different perspectives on their sitcom personalities. McCrary “is absolutely cool with being the Eddie Winslow character — he loves it …. Kellie is very down to Earth. She could care less. She walked away from the business a long time ago. She accomplished so much so early. … And Shawn doesn’t care to be compared to Waldo, not in his personal life,” Rowell said.
Jaleel White, he added, still has issues about being compared to Urkel.
Once everything was in place for “Christmas in Carolina,” they prepped for six months, Rowell said, “and we were off to the races from there.”
They started on the project in June 2019 and filmed in December last year, he said, which was perfect timing because early into the new year the COVID-19 pandemic shut everything down.
With fewer productions taking place — Christmas holiday movies often film in January and February to use the winter season for a backdrop — there were fewer holiday movies for outlets to choose among for release in the 2020 holiday season. Plus, there was the Williams-McCrary reunion that also piqued interest.
“That not only gave us the opportunity to be one of the fewer ones to choose from, but with the ‘Family Matters’ cast we had a lot of bite to it, a lot of interest to it,” Rowell said. “They hadn’t been seen in 30 years together. And as siblings.”
Who would have ever thought, he asked, that the pandemic would actually turn out to be a benefit for the movie?
Looking ahead
Rowell is continuing his full-time work with his foundation for at-risk youth, to help them “understand and realize their dreams. What better way to do that than doing what you preach?” That is why he continues to pursue his own dreams.
He said he has starred in two films that will be coming out in 2021 and he is hoping to sign on to other film projects in the spring.
“Ultimately, I see myself as a daytime talk show host,” Rowell said. “A little bit of Ellen, a little bit of Oprah, a little bit of Steve — a daytime talk show host with a late-night feel, giving people a moment to relax and not worry about the stresses of life.”
Showing that he still has those Ocean City roots, when he visits he has to walk the Boardwalk, get some Johnson’s Popcorn and make repeated trips to Wawa.
“You can’t come to Ocean City and not get some Johnson’s Popcorn,” he laughed. “That’s one of my favorite things to do, especially in the summer months.”
And when he’s not browsing at ShopRite, a must-stop when home, “I’m going to the Wawa to get me a coffee, like all day long. It doesn’t matter. Every hour I’m going to Wawa to get Colombian coffee.”
Of course, he also loves spending time with his family in Ocean City and Egg Harbor Township, including his father, also named David Rowell Sr., uncle Chris Rowell, his nana, Lula Mae Rowell, and his aunts Jackie Mason and Margaret Rowell.
Editor’s note: Movie poster courtesy of Legacy Distribution and Stacie Davis Films.