During
his teenage years, Stan became heavily involved in politics. At fifteen,
he was elected Vice President of The New York State Teenage Republicans
and was one of three individuals selected to represent his home state
at the National Teenage Republican Convention in Washington D.C. The following
year he was invited by the Chairman of the New York State Republican Party
to work for him on the floor of the 1984 Republican National Convention
in Dallas, Texas. While attending high school at St. Paul's in Concord,
New Hampshire, he was one of two students chosen to represent that state
at the 1985 Presidential Classroom in the nation's capitol. He then spent
the summer of 1986 as the youngest full time intern at New York City offices
of U. S. Senator Al D'Amato.
While attending Duke University, where he graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in political science, Stan's interest in politics became more global. During his first two years he spent semesters in Spain and South America respectively, working and studying at various social science institutes and developing a fluency in the Spanish language.
In a twist of fate, Stan's life would change forever during his junior year at Duke. Under the tutelage of former MFA professor Bob Hobbs, renowned for training performers in classical theatre, Stan rediscovered his passion for acting. During the next two years he appeared in and directed numerous plays and spent his summers performing in stock productions throughout North Carolina. Upon graduation, Stan turned down several offers to embark on a career in politics and opted to move back to New York to pursue acting. Incidentally, he is currently a registered Independent.
Stan immediately landed Off Broadway stage work and in 1991 made his television debut in Los Angeles starring opposite the legendary Brian Keith in a pilot for ABC entitled THE STREETS OF BEVERLY HILLS. Although the series never went further into production, Stan made California his permanent home and has worked steadily as an actor in front of the camera ever since.
During the following year Stan made numerous television appearances including MR. LYLE opposite Nick Cassavetes, PLEASE GOD I'M ONLY 17 opposite Talia Shire, FAST FORWARD opposite Gerald McRaney, and TRUE COLORS opposite Cleavon Little. He appeared in all thirteen episodes of the CBS series RIDERS IN THE SKY and spent six months as cast member of GENERAL HOSPITAL.
In 1992 he began a five year stint as one of the stars of the internationally successful HIGHLANDER television series. Stan has since made numerous guest appearances on such shows as FAMILY LAW, JAG, FIRST MONDAY, LOVE BOAT, THE DIVISION, and notably FRIENDS, in which he played Courtney Cox's boyfriend who initially claims to be a college senior and later reveals that he is, in fact, in high school. Stan's FRIENDS' storyline was selected by US magazine as the third most memorable in the series' history.
Stan has also starred in the television movies HOMESONG opposite Polly Draper and THE SKY'S ON FIRE opposite Bradley Whitford.
In
2000 Stan made his feature film debut as the title character of THE FLUNKY
opposite Farrah Fawcett, Dean Stockwell, and Laraine Newman, and quickly
followed it with a lead role in SHARK IN A BOTTLE opposite Ben Gazzara
and Danny Nucci. In 2003 Stan starred as a cop with a dangerous past in
SHALLOW GROUND, a horror film which was awarded best feature at its first
festival outing, the highly acclaimed DEAD BY DAWN, in Scotland, March
2004. In January Stan wrapped principal photography on DEEP RESCUE, a
psychological thriller in which he stars as the Commander of the U.S.
Space Shuttle Discovery, a seemingly heroic man who becomes unable to
hide his disturbed and villainous nature. Both SHALLOW GROUND and DEEP
RESCUE are due to be released later in 2004.
In October 2003 Stan got behind the camera for the first time as the co-writer, producer, director and star of STRAIGHT EYE: THE MOVIE, a comedic short film spoof of Bravo's hit television series, QUEER EYE FOR THE STRAIGHT GUY. STRAIGHT EYE will be available to television networks and film festivals in the spring of 2004.
Since 2000 Stan has also worked in between projects as both a classroom instructor and private coach of acting. In January 2004 he was named lead staff teacher at the Lesly Kahn & Co Acting Studio in Los Angeles, one of the largest and most renowned institutions of its kind in the country. Over the past four years Stan has worked with literally hundreds of actors to hone their craft.
Stan is also a published author. His contribution to Broadway Books' publication of AN EVENING AT JOE'S is available worldwide. He currently resides in Los Angeles.