Summary:
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Jack Haven, known for “Atypical,” seeks SAG job for health insurance coverage, asking industry for help.
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Haven’s urgent plea in YouTube video highlights need to meet earnings threshold for SAG-AFTRA health plan.
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Actor offers wide range of skills, from singing to accents, in effort to secure necessary work.
“Atypical” actor Jack Haven is asking the industry for a job, and they’re being upfront about why.
In a short YouTube video titled “Are You Casting?” the 32-year-old says they need to earn $4,000 on a SAG production by the end of the month to qualify for the union’s health insurance in January.
Haven calls it “a bit of an emergency situation” in the clip. Then they make the pitch plainly, asking anyone who can hire them on a SAG set to reach out. They say they’ll take almost any job and run through what they can bring, from singing and dancing to accents, even throwing in a quick British one.
The appeal points to how SAG-AFTRA health coverage actually works. Members have to hit a minimum amount of covered earnings each year to qualify for the union’s health plan. Miss the threshold and coverage can lapse, even for actors with recognizable credits.
Haven has plenty of those. They played Casey Gardner for four seasons on Netflix’s “Atypical” and appeared in “I Saw the TV Glow,” “Bill & Ted Face the Music” and “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma.” They also voiced a role in Netflix’s animated series “Dead End: Paranormal Park.”
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Commenters responded with support, with many pointing out how precarious health care is for working actors in the U.S., even ones fans know by name.
