Meet Liam Oh! A member of the ATC alumni family for over a decade, Liam’s career has been taken to new heights by his role as Ray McAffey in the recently released Netflix series, Boots.
Based on the true story of veteran Greg Cope White and adapted from his memoir The Pink Marine, Boots follows the tale of a bullied gay teen boy, Cameron Cope (portrayed by Miles Heizer), who joins the Marine Corps in the early 1990s alongside his best friend, Ray McAffey (portrayed by Liam Oh). The characters must navigate the difficulty of bootcamp alongside the looming pressure of keeping Cameron’s sexuality under wraps in an age where being openly gay is illegal in the armed forces. The new coming-of-age dramedy has already garnered positive reviews, holding a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes and regarded as “the best new TV show of the fall” by USA Today. Liam notes, “It has surpassed my expectations. It’s already been more warmly received than I could’ve hoped for.”
Cover image for Netflix’s Boots
Liam Oh’s involvement in the project began in 2023 with a call from his agents, which he received during the intermission of a live show. Halfway through a performance in his role as Andrej in the musical Once at Glencoe’s Writers Theatre, Liam received the news that he had been cast in the Netflix project. He was to board a plane the following week, but first he had to wrap up a weekend of performances, including finishing the second act after receiving career-changing news.
Liam Oh in Once at Writers Theatre
However, the lack of preparation soon became an advantage for Liam. With the opportunity to dive right into bootcamp, Liam found an opportunity to create a more genuine approach to Ray’s character. Liam says, “We were learning on the fly. Before an episode, we’d have a mini-bootcamp to learn the skills we’d need to know.” While taking on the physical toll of the bootcamps, both for preparation and during filming, Liam also adapted to the specifics of calibrating his performance as an experienced stage actor to the screen.
Liam Oh in Netflix’s Boots
Liam’s status as green extended beyond bootcamp — prior to the filming of Boots, he had put in very few hours on a film or TV set. Having previously been a day player on the sets of The Thing About Harry and Rainn Wilson’s Code 3, Liam says, “I had spent, collectively, maybe 10 hours on a set before this job.” For years, Liam had set his sights firmly on musical theatre. Performing in many ATC shows over his years training at Actors Training Center, and mainly taking classes aimed at musical theatre technique, Liam garnered attention for his stage skills, but rarely considered taking his talents to the screen, saying, “I thought I would be doing musicals for my whole life.” On translating his performance from the stage to the screen, Liam notes, “Acting is acting is acting. The basic fundamentals are the same. Sure, there are technical things that change between stage and screen, but ultimately the same skills that make you a good musical theatre actor, or stage actor, or screen actor are the same.”
Pictured left to right, (back row): Liam Oh, Charlie Oh, and Riley Oh, with ATC Founder and Executive Director (front row) Carole Dibo
Liam centers his acting values on practice and dedication, noting, “A love for the work is something that I picked up at ATC. I learned to love the process.” Celebrating a love for art can look many ways, but for Liam centers on a dedication to the process — analyzing text and calling back upon the fundamentals of acting. Creating a character can be as difficult as it is fulfilling, but Liam mentions, “It should be fun, which is tough to say, because it often isn’t – it’s work. But you have to look for the joy.”
Now celebrating a career milestone, Liam has gained perspective on the multifaceted nature of success in the performing arts, expressing, “There’s a difference between the work and the game. They often get conflated. Especially for film and TV, you can do the work years ago and sit on it for years, and once it comes out you feel very far away from the work, which is kind of how I feel right now. And then there’s the game of the industry, social media, and press, which a lot of people think is the work, but it’s not. It’s part of building a career, but the thing that really matters, and creates a long career instead of a moment, is the work.”
Liam Oh and co-star Miles Heizer at premiere for Netflix’s Boots
One thing that has kept Liam Oh’s head on his shoulders might surprise you — an affinity for ceramics. Liam has developed a passion for pottery, throwing clay whenever he can. More than a hobby to keep his head clear, Liam credits his love of pottery for expanding his abilities both off and onscreen, saying, “This job and this work is my passion, but I have found it’s so important to create a full and interesting and varied life outside of it, and that’s vital to continuing to do good work.” Liam explains, “It’s the idea of your world getting bigger. It’s worthwhile and valuable even if it doesn’t directly make your acting better. To have a passion that can just be for yourself – in this industry, there’s always eyes on you, you’re always putting yourself out there to be consumed, and that’s hard.”
Liam Oh in Netflix’s Boots
Liam credits Actors Training Center and its instructors for helping him to build a mental process that allows acknowledging failure while celebrating growth, noting “One of the best things about ATC is a mindset thing – it is work, and it’s fruitful, and it’s art.” Following his recent success, Liam has found himself back in the audition room often, exercising his skills. The split between the ‘work’ and the ‘game’, as Liam puts it, is still a line that he is learning to tread, mentioning, “It’s so hard, but rejection is not about you. When you don’t get the job, most of the time it’s not about your abilities.” Ultimately, Liam emphasizes the importance of growth over success, noting, “If you’re not failing on a regular basis, you’re not taking risks, and you’re not doing the job.”
Since attending musical theatre classes at ATC from ages 11-18, Liam Oh has seen his fair share of growth. From a successful career onstage in Chicago theatre, now branching into the world of film and TV, Liam is overwhelming the industry with a variety of talent and skill. Actors Training Center is proud to name Liam Oh a featured alum.
