As a toddler still in the era of light-up sneakers and sippy cups, West Fargo’s Drake Aasen was already staring wide-eyed at a galaxy far, far away.
“I was probably about 3 years old,” he recalls of watching “Star Wars” for the first time with his dad, Mike Aasen.
What he didn’t know then was that the world he loved on screen would circle back into his life in a spectacular way.
Now a senior at Georgia’s Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), Aasen was recently selected to present the festival’s prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award to Mark Hamill,
the man whose turn as Luke Skywalker nudged Drake toward a life onstage.
It was a full-circle moment years in the making for the 2022 West Fargo High School graduate. Aasen visited with The Forum recently to discuss meeting Hamill and the career path that began a long, long time ago in a living room not so far away.
Courtesy / Mills Lynerd, SCAD
To be clear, Hamill’s Skywalker can’t get all the credit for inspiring Aasen’s interest in show business all those years ago. Credit also goes to the pilot of the Millennium Falcon.
“We were watching ‘Indiana Jones’ and I was like, ‘Why is Han Solo cracking a whip?’ And my dad said, ‘Well, no, that’s Harrison Ford, and he’s an actor.’
The little boy’s brown eyes must have lit up like a Christmas tree.
“I thought, ‘You can get paid to run around and jump on thing? You just get to be paid to play pretend!?’ And I became infatuated with it,” Aasen said with a laugh.
Within a couple of years, he was performing. His first musical theater role as a kid was in “The Wizard of Oz” at Fargo-Moorhead Community Theater.
“It just unlocked something,” he said. “That was my first step into like, ‘Ooh, I want to learn more about this and understand the craft of it.’”
Before he ever set foot on SCAD’s campus, Aasen was already familiar to local theater goers. Fargo-Moorhead audiences watched him grow from child roles to leading man from Billy Elliott and Willy Wonka to Joe Hardy and Don Lockwood. That breadth of work continued at SCAD, where he has starred in “Little Shop of Horrors,” “Dancing at Lughnasa,” “Pippin” and multiple student films.
Contributed / Mitch Highman
Aasen had long participated in SCAD’s star-studded Savannah Film Festival, gradually taking on bigger and more public roles. But nothing prepared him for the year the school announced Hamill would attend.
“I called my dad and was like, ‘Hey, Mark Hamill is going to be here. I’m going to do everything I can to meet him and present for him,’” he said.
A week before the ceremony, Aasen received the news: he would be presenting the award.
He and Hamill spent significant time together, including in the backstage green room with Hamill, his wife Mary Lou and their daughter Chelsea. He told stories about old and new Hollywood, as well as the importance of family.
Contributed / Cindy Ord, SCAD
“I did get the opportunity to talk to him about how much he has impacted my dad and my relationship and how close we are through his work,” Aasen said. “It was like meeting and talking to your favorite grandpa.”
They even talked about getting butterflies.
The night of the ceremony, he watched Hamill bounce his leg with pre-show nerves. “He said, ‘There’s always some nerves that go into it.’” Aasen remembers.
A comforting reminder that even icons still feel human.
But Hamill wasn’t Aasen’s first brush with showbiz greatness.
Earlier this year, he was one of 12 students handpicked by Leslie Odom Jr. — yes, Aaron Burr from “Hamilton” — for a musical theater intensive that culminated in a cabaret performance directed by Odom himself.
“What didn’t I learn from him?” Aasen said. The lesson that stuck most: “He preached, ‘You are enough.’ The minute you trust yourself, it all just comes.”
Contributed / Drake Aasen
Aasen also earned the rare honor of being selected for both the Acting Showcase and Musical Theatre Showcase where he’ll perform for some of the nation’s top casting directors and agents before graduation. Only a small handful of students are chosen for both.
He’s also starring in SCAD’s latest sitcom, “Lodged,” a student-created multicamera comedy shot before a live studio audience. Aasen plays Wallace, the wealthy new owner of a ski lodge trying — and often failing — to fit into small-town mountain culture.
SCAD faculty members said Aasen is one of the best.
“Drake is relentless in his pursuit of growth. He takes direction well, listens, shows up first and leaves last. He knows that hard work brings opportunity, and it has. He is the perfect example of a SCAD superstar,” said Andra Reeve-Rabb, dean of the School of Film and Acting.
Courtesy / SCAD
Aasen will graduate from SCAD with his bachelor’s degree next year. When he does, he plans to move to New York to pursue Broadway opportunities while continuing to work in film and television. But he’s quick to emphasize he didn’t get here alone.
“Fargo has a really robust musical theater and performing arts scene,” he says. “Absolutely, I felt prepared to move into the wider entertainment industry.”
He credits not just high school and community productions but the sheer variety of opportunities the region offers.
“You pick up something from one, you bring it to the next and you can only help yourself by doing more,” Aasen said.
Contributed
Now, he’s hoping to be that same kind of support for the next wave of young performers. Aasen said it’s been especially rewarding this year to work alongside another local performer, SCAD freshman Andrew Grothman, who is a recent graduate of Fargo Davies High School.
“If I can do one thing with my career, I want to bridge the gap between the Fargo-Moorhead area and the wider entertainment industry,” Aasen said.
For the boy who once watched Mark Hamill on screen, and the young man who just handed him an award, the circle feels complete — and his career is just beginning.
He probably won’t tell you the Force is with him. But clearly, momentum is.
