From Powder Springs to TV Star

Some actors get stressed by the demands of one TV series. Not Doc Shaw, a Georgia native and former student. For a time, he worked on three TV shows all at once.

He's down to one now, co-starring in "Pair of Kings," which starts its second season on June 13 on the Disney XD cable channel. The channel is aimed particularly at boys between the ages of 6 and 14.

On "Pair of Kings," Doc, who turned 19 in April, plays Boomer, one of two fraternal twins being raised by an aunt and uncle in Chicago. Then the boys learn they are co-heirs to the throne on the island of Kinkow.

So Boomer and his brother, Brady (played by actor and singer Mitchel Musso) relocate to Kinkow and learn the island's odd customs and traditions, as well as how to be kings.

When he began work on the series, he was also a cast member on the TBS show "Tyler Perry's House of Payne" and Disney's "The Suite Life on Deck."

Doc told Patch that, although he had done a few TV ads, his career as an actor was launched in 2006, when he lived in Powder Springs and won the role of Malik Payne in "House of Payne."

His official MySpace page says he went to McEachern from 2006 to 2007. In 2009, though he continued to appear on "House of Payne," Doc and his family moved to Los Angeles—where he would later wrap up his high school education on set—to expand his acting opportunities.

"I went in for open casting just for fun," he recalled when asked how he made the jump from TV commercials to TV star in Georgia. "My mom found it and we just thought it was a fun thing to do on a weekend. We never expected for me to get it, and I never had any intention of working in the entertainment business."

He continued: "But they called me three months later and said I had the job, and I definitely wasn't going to turn it down. I did 'House of Payne' for five or six years."

Working on the TBS comedy proved to be a great learning experience, Doc said. Unlike network comedies, which generally produce a new episode each week, "House of Payne" made three or four shows a week.

"That really prepared me for coming out here and taking on a big part in 'Pair of Kings' and 'The Suite Life on Deck,' he said. "I got great training not only from Mr. Perry, but the entire cast."

Doc liked the fast pace of "House of Payne" because the actors always stayed in character. Working at warp speed, the show turned out 240 episodes in about five years, a rate unheard of elsewhere.

"Pair of Kings" simply couldn't work that quickly because of all the stunt work in the Disney show, Doc said.

"With 'House of Payne' there weren't as many special effects or as many stunts," he recalled. "There was a message and we're just getting that message across by vocalizing it."

In the first season of "Pair of Kings," the boys had no idea how to be kings, co-star Mitchel Musso told Patch. This season, they will be more responsible as they get the hang of their royal positions.

"Doc," of course, is just a nickname. His birth name is Larramie Cortez Shaw.

"I got my nickname from my granddad," he said. "It was geared toward my dad, who was a medical officer in the military. My granddad wanted to motivate me to do something great in life also. Hopefully, one day I'll get a pat on the back and they'll say, 'Cool, you earned the nickname.'"