Once you’ve caught the show-biz bug — like Mike Caron did some 30 years ago when he was a St. Louis high school student — no coronavirus can stop you.
For the past 15 years or so, the former Oakville-area resident has worked in a variety of behind-the-camera roles for live-action series on Nickelodeon.
Now Caron is the director of its newest entry,
Danger Force, a sequel to the popular
Henry Danger series.
Even more, Caron said the new show was one of only three shows that produced a scripted episode during the coronavirus lockdown — a May 9 episode
filmed completely with all cast members quarantined at home.
“It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done,” Caron said in a recent interview with
STLtoday.com. “No one could leave their house and we could only use things they already had at home in the episode.”
Mike Caron (Photo by Francesca Caron)
Caron grew up in south St. Louis County, the son of Rich and Mary Caron. He attended St. Margaret Mary Alacoque grade school then headed to St. Louis University High School. After graduating from SLUH in 1989, he set off for the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Having been in stage plays in high school, Caron went to Mizzou with a plan to become an actor and immersed himself in drama courses. (Celeb moment: He once had an acting class with Jon Hamm.)
“Then on my parents’ advice, I started thinking about something to fall back on, so I applied to the journalism school,” he said.
But after getting accepted, Caron decided to stick with his dramatic plans.
“I called (my parents) and told them what I really wanted to be was an actor, and they said OK,” Caron said. “They supported me.”
So after getting his degree in 1993, he matriculated to Tinseltown. “Yeah, packed up the U-Haul and went to L.A. to be an actor,” he said.
Early in his career, Caron landed a part on the soap opera
The Young & The Restless. It was not a big role, but it was recurring, he added.
And while he searched for bigger parts, a friend asked him in 2000 if he ever thought of working behind the scenes: There was an opening for a stage manager on
Passions, another daytime drama.
The fact that Caron was thinking about starting a family came into play.
Mike Caron directing an episode of "Henry Danger." (Photo by Dre Swain)
“It was behind the camera, but it was a steady job and it also got me into the Directors Guild of America,” he said. “And I took to it like a fish to water.”
A few years later, Caron hooked up with the people who were creating live-action shows for Nickelodeon, such as
Drake & Josh,
iCarly and
Henry Danger.
He worked his way up through several levels of assistant directorships and then began directing
Henry Danger in 2015.
Along with the coronavirus episode, Caron just directed a
series of Danger Force "minisodes" that now are airing on Nickelodeon.
On top of that, Caron also hosts a
weekly Instagram Live segment that allows fans to communicate directly with the show’s stars. Caron also shows the social-media audience the behind-the-scenes production work it takes to make a television show.
And even though he has spent more than half his life away from STL, Caron said his allegiances are evident.
“When anyone out here sees me with my St. Louis Cardinals cap on, they ask, ‘You from St. Louis?’” said Caron, whose email address includes the phrase “cardinalsnut.”
And if the person asking the question also hails from STL, “then they’ll ask, ‘Where’d you go to high school?’”
“My L.A. friends get a kick out of that and wonder why we do that,” Caron said. “I tell them I don’t know, but it’s what we do.”
Caron likes his life on the Left Coast, where he and his wife, Lori, now have two teenage daughters, Isabella and Francesca. Both seem pointed toward careers in the arts.
So has Caron, like his parents years before, advised his children to choose a fall-back career outside of arts and entertainment?
“Well, why not?” he said. “I mean, it worked so well with me, right?”
More Nick: Nickelodeon to Air Series of 'Danger Force' Minisodes!
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