The cast of the Gossip Girl sequel series is just as red-hot as the original cast. One of the new cast members is Evan Mock, who plays the super chill Aki Menzies. While you’ve not seen him in acting roles prior to Gossip Girl, the 24-year-old is very famous in his own way.
So, who is Evan Mock? This pink-haired skateboarder, model, and photographer is about to take Hollywood by storm. HollywoodLife has rounded up 5 key things to know about Evan.
1. ‘Gossip Girl’ is his first-ever acting role.
Showrunner Joshua Safran had initially used a photo of Evan as visual inspiration, according to Rolling Stone. This led to Evan nabbing his debut acting role. “I talked to Josh for the first time at the end of 2019,” Evan told the outlet. “He said, ‘I’ve been staring at your face the last couple months. It would be awesome if you just tried out for this part.’”
Safran revealed that he had to talk Evan into auditioning for the role of Aki. “He didn’t want to do this, I talked him into it. I wrote the role for him, I reached out to see if he was interested – he sort of was, he sort of wasn’t,” Safran told Mr Porter. “He’d say, ‘I’m really gonna try!’ I was like, ‘You can try, but this is also a contract and if the show goes years and years you have to be in it.’”
2. He is a skateboarder.
While he was at a skate park in Oahu, his friend Tom Sachs, who is an artist, asked Evan if he could record a video of him saying hello to his pal Frank. “Tom was like, ‘Hey, my friend Frank has cool hair like you, say what’s up to him!’” Evan told Vogue. “I didn’t think anything of it.” Tom’s friend was actually Frank Ocean, who posted the video of Evan to his personal Instagram that has millions of followers. That one day in the skate park took Evan’s career in a whole new direction.
3. Evan is also a model.
Since his career took off after Frank Ocean’s viral video, Evan has modeled for Louis Vuitton, Calvin Klein, SAINT LAURENT, and more. In addition to modeling and walking runways, Evan has also become a designer. He started the label Sorry in Advance and has teamed up with Justin Bieber. Evan released a collection with RVCA in 2021.
4. Evan went on tour with Travis Scott.
It all started after Travis Scott started following Evan on Instagram. They eventually connected in person, and Evan went on tour with Travis during the European leg of his Astroworld tour. “The way that I fell into it was so natural and so weird at the same time. He’s the biggest rapper in the world right now. It was a crazy experience the whole time,” Evan told Transworld Skateboarding.
5. Evan is from Hawaii.
Evan grew up on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii, on a plot of land owned by his grandfather. “The lifestyle we were living as kids was really a fantasy. I was homeschooled. We would go surfing when the waves were good and do our school whenever,” he told Mr Porter.