Past student Valentin Andres Tanga Flores IV (better known by his stage name, Von Flores) first found success as an actor in a number of television projects—both series’ and features alike. A Filipino by birth, Flores moved across the Pacific at the age of 13, when his family migrated to Toronto, Canada. There he’d stay into his adult life—save the occasional trip to the Philippines to get in touch with his roots.
His aspirations weren’t at all geared toward acting. In his youth Flores imagined himself attending the United States Naval Academy to learn how to fly—a hobby he took up later in life. In Toronto, however, Flores would study chemistry at the University of Toronto (Ms. Margaret Atwood’s alma mater), while taking “acting classes one night every week” to overcome his fear of crowds. There wasn’t a showbiz bone in his body—not yet.
He went out on his first audition at the urging of a friend—a Filipino-Canadian he’d met in his acting class. It was for an NBC show called “Night Heat,” that was auditioning local talent for its Toronto shoot. Under the pretense they’d both be auditioning, Flores took off the next day. Lo and behold the friend didn’t show, and Flores stumbled into a sea of 300 actors clamoring for a spot. (In his audition, Flores apparently wowed the producers so much that they patted themselves on the back for “discovering” the next big thing.) Long story short, he booked the part, and “Night Heat” would mark his professional acting debut in 1990.
In the decade following, Von Flores would star in over 40 television shows, many of which shot in Toronto. In 1997, his career took a big leap when he starred alongside Aidan Quinn, Donald Sutherland, and Ben Kingsley in “The Assignment.” After this, Flores continued to gain attention for his on screen work in Canada and the United States.
You can catch him in “Air Emergency,” and the mini-series “Rising Suns.”