Childhood & Early Life
Shayne Topp was born on September 14, 1991, to Catherine and Robert Royal Topp. When he was 18 months old, he almost drowned in a swimming pool and was saved by his parents in the nick of time. Following this, his father started calling him ‘Shayne Bobber,’ as he was found bobbing up and down in the pool before being revived by his mother. He was the youngest of the three sons in the family.
His father was an army man who worked for the ‘US Air Force’ as a fighter pilot. Before him, Shayne’s grandfather, too, worked as a fighter pilot. Thus, the same was expected of Shayne, too. However, he had different plans. He was more inclined toward arts and fell in love with performing arts at a very early age.
His first stint with acting took place when he was in fifth grade and played a small role in the school production of ‘Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.’ He continued to act throughout his school years and was excellent at “improv” comedy and impersonations. He also took acting classes before plunging into professional acting.
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Career
Shayne started his acting career with the 2006 comedy–drama film ‘Moonpie.’ He was 15 years old then, and the role he played was more of a preparation for his future career. By 2008, he had graduated from high school. He appeared in an episode of the popular series ‘iCarly’ and played ‘Phillip Brownley,’ a small role, in an episode titled ‘iMight Switch Schools.’
In 2009, he got the first major role of his acting career in the film ‘Dear Lemon Lima.’ The low-budget comedy feature film was based on the short film of the same name and featured Shayne as ‘Philip Georgey.’ The film premiered at the ‘Los Angeles Film Festival’ in 2009 and released in theaters in 2011, it received a warm response from both critics and audiences.
Shayne’s performance in the movie earned him an award for ‘Outstanding Performance’ in the narrative competition at the ‘Los Angeles Film Festival.’ The film won further accolades in many film festivals across the world. This was supposed to be a big break for Shayne, but in reality, it did little for his career.
In 2010, he was cast in the legal drama ‘Eli Stone’ and appeared in its pilot episode. Unable to find bigger roles, he resorted to doing smaller roles in a number of series during the early 2010s. Winning a major award for his performance at a big film festival did not do much for Shayne. In 2011, he made a small single-episode appearance in the series ‘Love Bites.’ The next year, he portrayed ‘Corey,’ a key role in the independent film ‘All Kids Count.’
In 2012, he made another guest appearance in the series ‘Fred: The Show.’ He appeared in the episode titled ‘Expired Cow.’ The same year, he got a big break as one of the cast members of the famous ‘Disney’ sketch comedy show ‘So Random!’ Shayne played the recurring role of ‘Shayne Zabo.’ The show was a major hit with audiences and critics, and Shayne’s performance made the show worth watching. This was one of his most popular appearances on TV. However, this performance, too, failed to bring him better roles.
He turned to doing short films toward the end of 2012 and appeared in leading roles in films such as ‘Hi, Lillian’ and ‘The Violation.’ In the following two years, he appeared in two more short films, ‘First’ and ‘Re-Writes.’ In 2013, he made a single-episode guest appearance for ‘AwesomenessTV.’
In 2014, he played minor single-episode roles in the series ‘Sam & Cat’ and ‘What’s Next for Sarah?’ In 2015, he appeared as ‘Taylor Halsted,’ another single-episode role, in the series ‘Switched at Birth.’
In 2015, he played a key role in an independent film titled ‘A Sort of Homecoming.’ The film premiered at the ‘Omaha Film Festival’ and was met with heavy critical acclaim. In the film, which ended up receiving many awards at various film festivals, Shayne played the role of ‘Dylan Conti.’ His performance was appreciated widely. The film was eventually released digitally in the US and received a good response from the audience.
In 2015, he played minor roles in series such as ‘Henry Danger’ and ‘Astrid Clover.’ In 2016, he appeared in the series ‘Cell Outs.’ Despite Shayne’s critically acclaimed performances, he remained ignored by Hollywood producers and eventually decided to leave the industry for good, after failing to bag a good film role.
Just when he was about to leave Los Angeles for good, one of his classmates from his acting classes asked him to audition for ‘Smosh,’ an American sketch-comedy ‘YouTube’ channel. Shayne appeared for the audition and was selected to play several random characters. The ‘YouTube’ channel has been the most-subscribed ‘YouTube’ channel at three separate times ever since it began posting videos.
‘Smosh’ has become one of the most-watched ‘YouTube’ channels in the US and Europe and has earned a fairly large following around the world. Shayne, over time, has become one of the key cast members on the show and has garnered praises by impersonating actors such as Tom Cruise, Christopher Walken, Nicholas Cage, and Michael Caine. He also happens to be the only member of the main cast who regularly appears in the sections ‘Smosh Pit’ and ‘Smosh Games.’ He is also known as the funniest and the most attractive cast member on the show.
He joined the cast of the series ‘The Goldbergs’ in 2017 and plays the recurring role of ‘Matt Bradley.’
