Former University of Texas sprint star Trevante Rhodes played the lead role in director Barry Jenkins' "Moonlight," which won the Oscar for best picture on Sunday night.
Jenkins' film follows the story of Chiron, a young black man who grows up in the Miami projects. As the character struggles with his sense of masculinity and sexual identity, he is shown at three different stages of life: childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, portrayed by three different actors.
The adult version of Chiron is played by the 27-year-old Rhodes, an All-American and All-Big 12 performer for the Longhorns.
Rhodes was born in Ponchatoula, Louisiana, but moved to Texas as a child. He attended Little Elm High School, where he earned all-district honors in track and field and football. An ACL tear during the football season derailed his senior year, so his best prep year on the track was as a junior in 2007. He took runner-up honors in both the 100m and 200m at the 4A Texas State Championships with prep PRs of 10.55 for 100m and 21.37 for 200m.
As a freshman at Texas, he was selected to the Team USA contingent at the 2009 Pan-American Junior Championships. He helped bring home gold in the 4x100m relay.
Rhodes finished his career at Texas with PRs of 6.80 for 60m, 10.37 for 100m, and 21.16 for 200m.
According to Texas Monthly, Rhodes was "discovered" while jogging around the Austin campus. He was stopped and asked to audition for a role that he ultimately did not land, but the experience piqued his interest. He appeared in HBO's "Westworld" and Tyler Perry's "If Loving You Is Wrong" before landing the starring role in Jenkins' film, which is adapted from "In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue," a play written by Tarell McCraney.
"Moonlight" is the first film with an all-black cast to win the best picture Oscar. It's also the first LGBTQ film to win Hollywood's most prestigious award.
An envelope mix-up at the ceremony led presenters Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty to mistakenly announce "La La Land" as the winner, and several acceptance speeches were made before "Moonlight" was given its proper recognition.