Daily Inspiration: Meet Jacob Hacker

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jacob Hacker

Jacob, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I was raised in Garnett Kansas which is about an hour south of Kansas City. My parents are Mike and Rachel Scobee who live in Pueblo West and I have two younger brothers named Christian and Joseph. I grew up going to public school and enjoyed playing every sport offered. My summers were filled with walking with my brothers to the pool, trips to all kinds of camps and hanging out with my country friends. I was also very involved in my church’s community and have to give a huge amount of credit to the people who have influenced me over the years in church, youth groups, and church camps for the success I’ve had in life. In high school I lettered varsity in football (2 years), baseball (3 years), and wrestling (1 year). I was also involved in Jazz Band (2 years), Madrigal Singers (2 years), Acapella Choir (3 years), Concert Band (1 year), Marching Band (1 year) and Theatre/Drama (3 years). I held a part time job at the local Pizza Hut waiting tables and taught swim lessons and lifeguarded during the summer as well. I was the male recipient of the David Penn Award which goes to the student athlete who displays leadership and equality on and off the field. I held several lead roles in the school’s musicals and plays and won “Best Comedic Performance” for my portrayal of Luther Billis in the musical South Pacific my senior year. My mom still has the picture of me in a grass skirt and a coconut bra on her dresser to remind me to have fun with whatever I do.

Coming out of high school I received multiple scholarship offers to play baseball and decided to play for Tabor College in Hillsboro Kansas. After playing for 2 years I realized I had other interests outside of sports and wanted to pursue other passions which led to me transferring to Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg Kansas.

One of my biggest passions is performing but more specifically acting. My first semester at Pitt State I answered a casting call from a flyer in the student center about a student film and I was hooked. The following year I switched my major to join the theatre program which was “umbrellaed” by the Communications department. This allowed me to mix and dabble in multiple industries like news broadcasting, sports broadcasting, documentary film making and video journalism. My biggest claim to theatre while at Pitt State was my lead role as Matt Poncelet in “Dead Man Walking” by Tim Robbins which sold out every show. I even got to meet the actual Sister Helen Prejan who wrote the original story and got to hear her speak. She is a fiery nun! Going through the entire experience of Dead Man Walking gave me the confidence in my acting and it was then I decided to pursue acting as a career. I went on to receive 2 scholarships from Pitt State and was involved in nearly a dozen shows during my time there. Go Gorillas!

My first job out of college was a radio sports commentator for Parsons Kansas covering their high school and community college level sports. After moving to Colorado in 2014 I was hired on the spot at the Courtyard by Marriott in Pueblo Colorado and worked in their bistro and front desk departments while acting for local theatres. I landed my first professional role from Theatreworks in 2016 for a play called “Girl of the Golden West” directed by Murray Ross.

Since then I have acted for many of the theatres on the Front Range including Theatreworks, Iron Springs Chateau, Counter-Weight, Steel City Dinner Theatre Company, CRAFT Production Resource, and Springs Ensemble Theatre (SET) where I am currently an active member. I am a member of the Colorado Theatre Guild and just participated in the annual Colorado Theatre Guild auditions so I hope that list increases! I am also a carpenter for the Fine Arts Center at Colorado College and have helped build stages for Elf, Water by the Spoonful, and Rent this past season. I am also a part of the deck crew that works back stage during performances at the FAC. I also contribute my talents as a Standardized Patient in nursing simulations for the UCCS Nursing Department and help out at Green Box Arts in Green Mountain Falls conducting group fitness classes highlighting their outdoor fitness court during their summer festival.

On the film side of things I have been featured in commercials on the Front Range, in Denver, and in Pennsylvania markets. I’ve developed a great relationship with NLA Media and StayBien Films and currently have representation by The Block out of Denver. Some of the companies I’ve represented are Elevate Dental, Wes Carver Electric, Rocky Mountain Auto Brokers, Wiseman Roofing, and my favorite WireNut where we staged a scene of me falling through the ceiling. I have also acted with the Capstone Student Film projects with UCCS, been featured in a metal band music video (Nail Funeral by Crown Magnetar on Youtube), and participated in Steve Austin’s workshop The Actor’s Voice.

Outside of Theatre and Film I have Emceed the Colorado Springs St. Patrick’s Day 5k (2024), portrayed characters at parties at the Broadmoor and I have had the amazing experience of being Clifford the Big Red Dog for Rocky Mountain PBS (twice). The pure joy on a child’s face when they see Clifford is one of the most wholesome forms of enjoyment I have experienced while being an actor. What makes it even better is when their parents get just as excited.

During the day you will find me training clients at Crunch North Fitness where I have clients ranging from 14-90 years old. I’ve also coached Ninja Warrior, Parkour, Baseball, Basketball, and Soccer. When I turned 26 I bought a full suspension mountain bike and life has never been the same. I constantly look for mornings and afternoons to steal away to the trails and shred some dirt. Mountain biking has taught me to be patient with growth but tenacious with consistency. I also compete in Colorado Ninja League in the Pro/Amateur division for the 25-39 men and enjoy cycling with my best friend Richard around Colorado Springs.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I understand I have had a good upbringing but I have had some trials along the way. My biological father left my mother and I when I was 7 years old. I later found out when I was older it was more along the lines of my mom telling him to shape up or ship out and he chose to leave. For every story of a parent leaving I think there’s a story of another parent telling them I’m strong enough and don’t need you. My mother is a strong woman and remarried just over a year after he left and we moved to Garnett Kansas when in was 8. Being raised by a step-father had it’s own challenges and difficulties. I never saw family again on my dad’s side including my grandma and grandpa so that has always been difficult carrying the feeling of not seeing family that I thought would be there for forever. I was embraced and loved by my step-father’s parents and grew up knowing them as grandma and grandpa. Garnett was a very small town and everybody knew everybody so it was difficult breaking into such a tight knit community. I often had to explain why I had a different last name than my parents but the name Hacker is a part of my identity because it was my most used Nickname due to sports so I never changed it despite being technically adopted by Mike.

Living in a very small town had limited resources so I was forced to quit my favorite sport and my first love, soccer, in the 6th grade. I asked to go to a different school but it was out of the question because it was 30 miles away. I made the decision in 6th grade to earn a scholarship playing baseball. Everything was going according to plan when injury struck my senior year 2 weeks before the season ended. My high school career ended early but I was still named 2nd team all Conference despite missing some games in the end. I had multiple scholarship offers pulled because I was already on the lower end of the talent spectrum for collegiate baseball but managed to rehab my knee and started playing again 6 weeks after the injury. I ended up signing with Tabor College and played for 2 years at the College level.

During my freshman year at Tabor College my parents decided to uproot our family and move to Colorado. I was actually excited when I first heard the news but then that excitement was depleted when I found out we were moving to Lamar Colorado. The decision came very abrupt to me and it was not a part of my future plans. I decided to stay in Kansas and wanted to get my education in Kansas. It was very difficult going through that much separation from my parents so unexpectedly and not having the amount of resources I thought I would going through college. I became very self reliant and it taught me to seek opportunity from the community.

When the Covid Shutdown began it was a ridiculously hard time not having theatre as a creative outlet. I had just got my own 1 bedroom apartment in February 2020 and that became complete isolation when the shut down hit. I was working for Xfinity in their Retention department and the conversations and types of phone calls we took during that time was extremely sad. I will say Xfinity does try to create solutions so many times I could provide a solution to people needing internet while losing their jobs. I also took calls from Minnesota during the time of the riots and from Houston when they had their intense freeze happen. These calls were not easy and often I took the emotions home with me because I was working from home and there was no separation from work stress. there would be weeks at a time I would not get face to face human interaction which almost sent me into depression. I started visiting my parents every other week and taking weekly bike rides with Richard who is now my best friend.

As an actor I could say because I don’t get every role I audition for it is a struggle but in the end I love this struggle. I love being a part of a production no matter which role I play.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I like to consider myself an Actor. I still have a day job but I now earn about 10-20% of my income through acting gigs. I had success in high school and college for acting and it was in college I decided to pursue acting with the same tenacity as I did with sports. After moving to Colorado I’ve learned that there is a lot of talent on the Front Range and my communications degree wasn’t really recognized by the theatre community as a theatre degree even though I have an emphasis on theatre. I persisted and kept showing up to auditions and volunteering for run crews when I did not get casted but soon enough I started getting roles. I was doing shows in Pueblo when I got my first professional role on stage from Theatreworks in 2016 for “Girl of the Golden West”. I was then casted again by Theatreworks in 2018 for “The Hairy Ape” and these are my two professional performances. By professional I mean these roles contribute towards my status to become an equity actor through the Equity Membership Program. Just because a gig pays money does not make it professional. Most paid gigs are Semi-professional meaning yes they pay, but they do not count towards union membership as an equity actor. When an actor becomes “equity” they can no longer do community level theatre so there is some status attached to it. Right now I am a Semi-professional actor with non-union status in both stage and film which allows me to do any type of theatre or film offered.

I am very active in the theatre community in Colorado Springs and plan to get more involved with the theatre scene in Denver in the near future. I am a member of Springs Ensemble Theatre, we call ourselves SET, and I work at the Fine Arts Center as a carpenter and member of the run crews backstage. My biggest roles in Colorado include Timmy from “Hand to God” and as Larry from “Boys In The Band” both produced by SET in Colorado Springs. I also just produced my first play “Annapurna” with SET this past spring. SET is a non-profit theatre that focusses on intimate and gritty theatre and I am very proud to be a member of such a fine theatre company!

Outside of theatre I am known as the “WireNut guy”. I got the role of a recurring character for some WireNut commercials back in 2022 and they are very funny. My character is an inefficient DIY doer and has problems fixing his own hvac problems. We even staged one where I fall from the ceiling. We used a stunt dummy but I was totally willing to do it myself. I have been featured in over 2 dozen commercials here in Colorado since getting my first commercial in 2022. I’ve also portrayed Clifford the Big Red Dog for Rocky Mountain Kids Fest, worked character renditions for parties at the Broadmoor and freelance as a grip and production assistant on professional film sets in Denver.

I am represented by an agency called The Block in Denver. Mark and Carol are my agents and they send me national commercial opportunities and event bookings in Denver, Austin, and Nashville markets. I thoroughly enjoy the people I meet booking professional gigs because they are always so insightful and encouraging towards achieving great things.

If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
My life revolved around sports and church growing up. I loved every sport and my second word as a child was ball after mom. My mom says as a baby I would clap and say ball when sports came on flipping through channels. My favorite sport was soccer growing up but I also wrestled, played baseball, football, and basketball. Luckily entry fees were low back then so I never had a quiet season. My step-dad ended up being my coach many times in my baseball career and gave him my first homerun ball after hitting it. Sports gave me an easy connection to bond with my step-dad. I was known to be very happy and helpful growing up. I was the oldest of 3 so the expectation for me to be responsible and look after my brothers started at a very early age. I helped change diapers and cleaned up the kitchen after supper. Instilling a sense of usefulness has been taught to me by my father and the rest of his side of the family from my grandma and grandpa and uncles ever since my mother remarried. Most of the family on my step-dad’s side are not college educated but have worked their way up in their respected fields through hard work and having pride and dignity in everything they do no matter how small the task may seem. I was a good student and had many people tell me “you’re going to college” which at a young age instilled a desire to finish college. It took 5 years and 2 schools but I did it.

In high school I was very easy going which made me likable which made me somewhat popular. I did many activities and I like to get to know the people around me so I had many friends. I didn’t consider myself as a popular kid but took it upon myself to know people individually because I feel it ties to being a good person. I was very known for my involvement with church and youth group activities in the community. I volunteered every summer at my church’s Vacation Bible School as a P.E. teacher and taught swim lessons and lifeguarded at the local pool. A big highlight of every summer was spending a week at Hidden Haven Church Camp. Shout out to my camp friends!

Because I had 2 younger brothers I developed many other relationships with people their age through the years. My senior year I was a candidate for Homecoming but lost to my best friend at the time, Izaak Winter. I lettered in Football, Baseball, and Wrestling, took a vocal solo to state and received a 2 my Junior year, I lead the team in batting average my senior year and earned 2nd team all conference honors as well as received the David Penn Award/Scholarship that goes to the Senior Student Athlete who demonstrates leadership and equality on and off the field. This award is voted by school faculty and members of the community and I was very proud to receive it. I no longer visit Garnett regularly but I am very proud of the upbringing and community I was raised in.

Pricing:

• Acting services are $50-100/hr plus additional income if recurring usage (please contact agent)

Contact Info:

• Website: https://800casting.com/Profile/830472#img=1716221696977
• Instagram: @jacobnhacker
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jacob.n.hacker
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC84W4xdggTk4UYh9FfMbOqQ

Image Credits
Ralph Giordano, Eric Weber