Arturo Holmes/FilmMagic Evan Peters has a lot of acting experience, having played Quicksilver in the X-Men film series and played multiple roles in the anthology series American Horror Story – Peters is not an actor looking for his big break. However, the attention he has received for playing Jeffrey Dahmer Dahmer – Monster: The Story of Jeffrey Dahmer overshadows the hype he has received for every other role during his nearly two-decade career.
Peters plays Jeffrey Dahmer, a demented killer accused of cannibalism and necrophilia, among other things. Evan has received a lot of critical acclaim and fans for his performance.
Evan wouldn’t be the success he is today without the support of his parents, Julie and Phil Peters.
Evan Peters’ parents gave him a year to graduate in California or give up on his acting dreams
Photo by Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic Evan Peters was born on January 20, 1987 in St. Louis, Missouri, to Julie and Phil Peters. He was raised Catholic alongside his older brother, Andrew, and older paternal half-sister, Michelle.
In 2001, the family moved to Grand Blanc, Michigan, where Evan took acting classes at Flint Youth Theater and modeled. “I was bitten by the acting bug,” Peters said MLife. “But most of all I wanted to meet the Olsen twins. They were 15, I was 15…acting seemed like the best way.”
Peters won several awards at an American Model and Talent Conference in Florida, where a photographer matched Peters and his mother with an agent in Los Angeles. “Everyone seemed to think he had something,” Julie said.
After signing a contract with a manager and agent in Los Angeles, Peters landed a role in Cut Adam. His performance earned him a Screen Actors Guild Emerging Actor Award. Phil, then an executive for the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, and Julie decided to give Evan a year in Los Angeles to succeed in acting.
Julie and Evan moved to Los Angeles, leaving Phil and Andrew in Michigan. “The talent manager said a year wasn’t enough time to know if he could succeed or not,” said Phil. However, Peters proved he was the real deal. Julie said:
“It was a busy year. He got that movie, then a Sony PlayStation commercial, four or five episodes of Phil of the Future, and they just kept coming. After two years he was able to participate and pay part of the bills. I kept saying, ‘Do you really want to do this?’”
Peters received his high school diploma through homeschooling with his mother. Eventually, Julie returned to Michigan, leaving Evan to fend for himself. Evan had a chance to meet the Olsen twins at a movie premiere, but he panicked and couldn’t approach them.
Evan did not finish college and said he would return if his acting career failed. “I think when I’m 30 or something, if I’m a bum eating ketchup packets, I’ll probably go back to college. For now I’m just chilling. Living the life. Living the dream,” Evan said. Evan Peters is still living the dream.
