Today he’s an attorney, tomorrow a CIA agent, the day after that a firefighter, and next week he’s a video game action hero. Actor Bradford Haynes ’05 has played the offensive coordinator on “Necessary Roughness” and a Virginia homicide detective on “The Following.” He’s been in dozens of commercials and several short films and has been a face of brands such as Glock, Dixie, Home Depot and Graco while working with Wilhelmina Models in New York.

“I love being in front of the camera, love entertaining, love giving joy to people,” says Haynes. “Sometimes I can’t believe I get to wake up to this life every day.”

Haynes came to Wofford in 2001 on a baseball scholarship and enjoyed his first experience on camera during a January Interim. After he left Wofford he signed with a Dodgers minor league team, then played with a team in Seattle. Haynes was playing winter baseball in Australia when he got his first endorsements and started doing commercials. The Nike and Pepsi commercials gave him a taste for acting, so Haynes started taking acting classes in the offseason. Life as a professional baseball player who dabbled in acting seemed ideal until 2010. Haynes was in Japan playing with the Ishikawa Million Stars when he tore his quadriceps.

“I came home not knowing what I was going to do,” he says. “I was 29 at the time—getting old in baseball years—and I knew I was done playing minor league ball.”

The “Necessary Roughness” job came at a pivotal time and opened doors for other opportunities—roles on “Teen Wolf,” “Charlie’s Angels,” “House of Payne,” “Cupid’s Requiem” and “Psychology of Secrets.”

This spring Haynes has been in Los Angeles for pilot season, reading for several promising roles. The rest of the year he lives in Atlanta with his wife, Kyrsten, and infant daughter, Addison.

“Atlanta is the new Hollywood,” says Haynes, referring to Georgia’s growing role in the television and film industry—think Tyler Perry Studios, Pinewood Atlanta Studios, Eagle Rock Studios Atlanta, Atlanta Metro Studios and the new Atlanta Media Campus Studios.

“This is not what I studied for, but Wofford is a place that will take young men or young women and help them become well rounded enough to be anything,” says Haynes. “It’s February, and I woke up to 70 degrees and sunny.… After a run and a workout, I’ve got an 9:30 a.m. call at the studio. I love my life.”

by Jo Ann Mitchell Brasington ’89