Neil McDonald

Neil McDonald is an American actor. McDonald portrayed Mr.Neil Rowley on Pureflix series Up on High Ground.

## About

Neil's most recognizable acting role is as Mr.Neil Rowley on the television series Up on High Ground (2014–2015).

## Supporting roles and theater

Neil’s past credits include a workshop of five musicals in ten weeks with Tom Lehrer; was a founding member of Central California Conservatory Theatre where he performed in Damn Yankees! and Fiddler on the Roof; a cameo in the 1980’s cult film Radioactive Dreams; voice over work for Public Television in Southern California; multiple roles in plays and musicals including Guys and Dolls, Fiorello!, Pal Joey; Girl Crazy, Outward Bound, Witness for the Prosecution, Anything Goes; and directing projects including The Birthday Party, Lily the Felon’s Daughter, and Beyond the Box, an original one act first produced at Cal State Fullerton.

In 2012 Neil played two roles in the short film *To Inflict*. The role of Mr. Berman, the boss of the main character and Chelsea’s dad. (Voice-over role on the telephone). The Elizabeth Wiegard directed film would be selected in the 7th Indie Fest USA film festival in Garden Grove, California in 2013.

## Up on High Ground

McDonald along with Molly Cravens, were the highest billed characters in the cast not present in the opening title sequence for the family and faith based TV series *Up on High Ground.* McDonald playing the character Mr.Neil Rowley in *Up on High Ground* marks the third time that he worked with Brayden Patterson, Joe McGettigan, Bryan Kreutz and Erin Morris alongside sisters Rylee and Molly Cravens. The first was the 2013 Indie Fest USA qualifying short film, *To Inflict*, and the second was the feature film *Hercules: The Brave and the Bold*. McDonald appeared in every episode of the series that ran on several The CW TV affiliates in syndication and Pure Flix Entertainment from 2014-2015.

Bryan Kreutz, who worked closely with McDonald in two previous films, and also a hospital commercial, shared the same agent at the time the series was taping. It was a mutual agreement from the beginning that should their agent have much higher paying gigs or lucrative auditions Neil would prioritize those above the series, but will be able to arrive shortly after call time to play Mr. Rowley.

Not only was McDonald mentioned as being the most senior teacher at the fictional East Valley Academy school when his close friend and teacher Mr. Stu Charles was dismissed, he was also the eldest and most experienced actor on set. Working again with many of the same actors and producers in St. Louis. McDonald was a coveted and essential piece to the casting puzzle when the scripts were in development for Up on High Ground. McDonald portraying an on edge teacher and having a pivotal role in many of the early written scripts was well suited for this role, per Kreutz, on his acting abilities to delve deep into emotion and feeling exploited when being forced to double as a school council board member after the district fired the previous regime.

Mr. Neil Rowley's best friend in the series gets a more plausible reason for permanent dismissal with a student touching incident from an idea that actor Neil McDonald further cultivates for his fictional teacher friend Stu Charles. Prior to cameras rolling and with the story arc well planned out, McDonald made two fairly significant suggestions to producers and director Tommy Callahan in an August 2013 e-mail message that read the following:

> I had a couple of thoughts: If this is going to be a private, possibly parochial, school, calling it East Valley High sounds awfully public school-ish. Maybe East Valley Academy? Also, with private schools, teachers don't have the same contractual protections (like tenure) they have in public schools, so Stu's pending dismissal would be relatively simple for administration. Some private schools do have teacher contracts, though, but unless something is specified about what "just cause" is in dismissal cases, Stu wouldn't have much to fight with - Neil.
>
>

Neil's wife Kari was apart of several cases similar to this and helped advise him and thus the series producers to make it more meaningful and life like on the scandals. McDonald's idea in the aforementioned e-mail for making it a private school instead of a public school is responsible for the high-school naming of East Valley Academy.

During the filming of Up on High Ground, Kreutz and McDonald together would film a scene opposite Kate Upton and Alexandra Daddario in an airport check in scene with Upton spitting in Kreutz's carry on bag. Director William H. Macy referring to the two actors by name had asked them to do the scene three different ways. Nearly the entire scene was ultimately cut by from the film "The Layover", released in theaters in 2017, however McDonald and Kreutz were bumped up from featured extras and appeared throughout the film in very noticeable background parts.

## Personal life and career

Born in Yosemite Village, Yosemite Valley, California McDonald was often around animals and nature. McDonald is also a zookeeper; particularly working at the second largest Zoo in the United States (St.Louis Zoo) with Stingrays.

Education: California State University, Fullerton, University of California, Santa Cruz as a teacher.

Halfway through taping the series *Up on High Ground,* McDonald appeared alongside lead actress and Up on High Ground student Stephanie Swink in the U.S. filmed short *My Life Is a Movie,* which aired on Australian television and appeared in multiple global and domestic film festivals. This globally recognizable film gave recognition to McDonald on a much larger scale for the first time in his career. The film was directed and edited by Emmy award winner Dale Ward who edited one early episode of Up on High Ground.

McDonald currently resides just south of St.Louis in Festus Missouri with his wife and son.

## External links

* IMDb\_name|5006753

\* Neil McDonald at TV.com