Palmetto High School junior Koby Rouviere might look familiar to you if you watched the CBS TV series How I Met Your Mother.
Rouviere played Marshall in flashbacks to his childhood. These days, being an actor is a hobby. He’s been in more than 40 commercials for companies such as Jell-O and Oxi Clean.
“I’m not going to let it take over my life,” he says. “It’s a good thing to go back to.”
The family moved to California in 2009 for six months so the kids could work in television and film, and then they came back. His brother Zachary and his sisters Taylor and Sydney have also been on TV shows, movies, and in commercials. In fact, the money all the kids made as actors was put into their college fund. His brother and sister have gone to the University of Florida, which is where Rouviere also wants to go.
Last month, Rouviere won the Most Outstanding Television Production Junior Award and Outstanding Junior for the class of 2019 at the Palmetto Awards ceremony. He is president and editor-in-chief of the Television Production Club this year and will be president again next school year.
“Every day we come in, we have video that needs to be done,” he says. “We run the morning announcements.”
The students do videos of events throughout the school year. They recently shot video at the prom and turned it around in two days to show on morning announcements. They also take video at sporting events and they try to do interactive videos so they can include more students.
To pay for TV production, the club organizes and runs the fundraiser called Mr. Panther. As president of the club, he makes sure everything is on track for the event. Last year, his brother was the MC. This year, Rouviere hosted the program this year and will do so again next year.
This school year he was captain of the varsity volleyball team with two seniors and expects to be one of the captains again next year. The team had a good season. It ended with a loss in a close game against defending state champs, Killian, in the district finals.
He’s also captain of the bowling team. The bowling team also had a good season, just missing going to states.
Rouviere is taking an internship class where he works in the technology department.
“I distribute the new computers,” he says. “The tech, Mr. White, he’s my boss. I go in and do what needs to be done.” Including computer maintenance and other equipment distribution and repair .
At home. Rouviere is surrounded by dogs.
“We have rescue dogs at our house and we help transport them throughout the city,” he says. “We bring them in and transport them all over, we even transport them to NJ.”
Occasionally, the family will adopt the dog.
“The ones on the streets are the sweetest,” he says. “We have one that was hit by a truck and has to wear a shirt every day (while it heals).
My mom started rescuing dogs when I was little, around 15 years ago. We would take a dog in if it had nowhere to go. Dogs never scared any of us.”
Summertime, Rouviere volunteers at the Alexander Montessori Sports Camps at his old elementary school.
“I help guide the campers throughout their summer experience and mentor them to enhance their skills and interaction with the other campers” he says.
He enjoys working with the kids and helping his former coaches.
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
