Sean Patrick Small
Actor
Writer and award-winning actor Sean Patrick Small stars as\legendary basketball player Larry Bird in the HBO series‘Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty.’ To say he was destined to play the role would be an understatement, and not just because he looks just like the man widely regarded as one of the greatest basketball players of all time. Sean is a basketball superfan who has played the sport from high school through college and intoadulthood.As an aspiring actor and writer, Sean decided in college that the best way to pursue both careers was to write a script and try to secure roles both in front of and behind the camera.
That script was a mini series about Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, based on a favorite book Sean read in college called When March Went Mad, by Seth Davis. Sean optioned the book, which captures the early life trials and tribulations of these would-be superstars. His script traces the beginning of their storied rivalry, culminating in the most watched basketball event of all time–the 1979 NCAA championship game.While shopping his script around, and after securing Emmy Award-winning director Thomas Carter tohelm the show, Sean learned that HBO Max was doing their own series about the Lakers. Winning Time:The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty chronicles the rise of the team’s success in the 1980s, beginning close to where Sean’s script left off. When Bo Burnham, cast as Larry Bird, had to drop out of the project, Sean was able to get in front of their casting team through his representatives.
A week later, he landed the role he always wanted to play, and began filming shortly after.Sean was born in Mountain View, CA, and raised in the Bay Area. While attending high school in Los Altos, he took an acting class and was hooked. He had the opportunity to learn about film production and act again in two independent short films while attending the University of California, Davis. After transferring to the University of Southern California for his final two years of college, he enrolled in their Critical Studios of Film program, and gained more acting experience in student films before graduating.From that point on, Sean became fully immersed in the entertainment industry, working as a production assistant and writing, directing, and acting in shorts and web series.He earned a Best Actor Award at the LA Live Film Festival for his lead role in the dramatic short film ‘The Just.’Sean continues to act and write while working at Endemol Shine North America, a production and distribution company and creator of television and digital content.