SF State has had its fair share of famous alumni — including actors Danny Glover, Jeffrey Tambor and Dana Carvey — once gracing its halls, but the University’s newest aspiring celebrity is taking a different path toward Hollywood stardom.
Danny Myers, a senior broadcast and electronic communications art major, recently gained attention as a contestant on the Oxygen network’s reality show “Love Games: Bad Girls Need Love Too.” Though Myers is now a reality show personality, he was formerly the Fall 2011 host of “Ham Radio” on the BECA program’s radio station KSFS and is an aspiring voice-over actor.
Myers is one of the bachelors for the this season of “Love Games,” a spinoff of “Bad Girls Club,” a reality show where seven girls bond and party while living in a mansion for three months. The spinoff follows three contestants from various seasons of the “Bad Girls Club” who attempt to find romance in a pool of 13 bachelors. The show was filmed this past summer and premiered Nov. 5.
“Being on reality television can open doors for me in the entertainment industry,” Myers said. “I want to be a voice-over actor and this can help me with that.”
Myers previously applied to the MTV reality show “Real World,” but didn’t make the cut. Undeterred, he applied for “Love Games” and was offered a place in the house. Myers described being accepted into the house as a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
According to Teri Kennedy, vice president of current programming for Oxygen Media, the network looks for a diverse selection of contestants with specific qualities.
“As far as particular qualities, we look for what every woman is looking for in a mate — a sense of humor, unique interests, intelligence — and being easy on the eyes is a bonus!” Kennedy said. “Danny’s self-effacing humor, collegiate charm and all-American, bad boy next door appeal was what drew us to him.”
Myers sees his involvement at KSFS and with the BECA program as one of the things that set him apart in the crowd of other hopefuls for the show.
“Seeing that I had time in a radio station set me apart from the others,” Myers said. “It was a good selling point for casting, because not many others had a background like mine.”
He called his time in the house a learning experience.
“One lesson I learned in the house is that when those cameras are rolling you have to be conscious of your actions,” Myers said. “They film 24/7, so it can be hard to think about how your actions can be seen on television all the time.”
One of his favorite parts of being on the show was being among diverse contestants.
“I really liked being in a house with guys from all walks of life,” Myers said. “There would be one guy from the East Coast, a guy from the South and then people like me from the West Coast.”
While not every student on campus enjoys a dose of reality television, there are still those who will be tuning in just to see Myers.
Christine Alcantara, a senior studying biology at SF State, has never heard of the show, but will watch the premiere.
“I would watch the show in the way that a person from San Francisco supports the Giants; I’m from SF State so I would support my team,” Alcantara said.
