Why Alec Travers From I See You Looks So Familiar

When "I See You" premiered in 2019, critics praised the horror thriller for its satisfying misdirections and twist ending. As Dennis Harvey put it for Variety, the film "starts out looking like a supernatural tale — one of several viewer presumptions this cleverly engineered narrative eventually pulls the rug out from under." Now "I See You" is enjoying a second life on Netflix, where it's sitting pretty in the streamer's top 10.

"I See You" starts off typically enough, with the two-pronged conflicts of internal marital problems and a tragedy in the community. While Detective Greg Harper (Jon Tenney) is investigating an abduction, strange things begin happening in the Harper house, to the confusion and terror of Greg's wife Jackie (Helen Hunt) and son Connor (Judah Lewis). The eerie happenings prove to be the work of Alec Travers, who, along with his partner Mindy, is a "phrogger" — squatters who leap from house to house undetected by the homeowners. Alec is played by Owen Teague, and here's where you may have seen this up-and-coming actor before.

Owen Teague caught the acting bug at age 4, when he would reenact scenes from Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" every day at his house in Tampa. Some 10 years later, he made his TV debut in an episode of "Malibu Country," followed by appearances in shows like "NCIS: Los Angeles" and "Bones." Teague's big break, however, sent him back home to Florida for Netflix's "Bloodline."

With an all-star cast that includes Kyle Chandler, Ben Mendelsohn, and Sissy Spacek, "Bloodline" follows the Rayburns, a respected family in their Florida Keys community. When Danny (Mendelsohn), the black sheep of the family, returns home, he stirs up trouble. Beginning in Season 1 in 2015, Teague does double duty as both young Danny in flashbacks and Nolan Rayburn, Danny's son. Teague may have only been a high school student at the time, but he stayed cool in the presence of A-listers. "I don't think I was really star struck with anyone, except when doing my first scene with Ben Mendelsohn," the actor told the Tampa Bay Times. "He's such a great guy."

If an actor harbors any sort of literary fandom, there are worse places to start than Stephen King. "I kind of grew up with Stephen King," Teague told Interview magazine in 2020. "He was one of my favorite authors." The actor has been lucky enough to participate in multiple King adaptations, beginning with the 2016 film "Cell."

In 2017, Teague appeared in Andy Muschietti's adaptation of "It" as Patrick Hockstetter, a sociopathic teen with a yen for terrorizing children and animals. Patrick fits perfectly in Henry Bowers' gang, who relish in bullying the members of The Losers' Club. Teague may have played a psycho, but he was plenty spooked by Bill Skarsgård's Pennywise. "When he wasn't in character, it was a bit weird to see a creepy clown just strolling around being like, 'What's up,'" Teague told Schön! magazine. "Once he got into character ... yikes. The first time I saw him do it, I was genuinely scared."

Patrick ultimately meets his end thanks to Pennywise, but Teague reprised the role — albeit a zombified version — for "It: Chapter Two" in 2019.

The same year that Owen Teague had a run-in with Pennywise in "It," he appeared in a very different kind of genre exercise in "Black Mirror." The Season 4 episode "Arkangel" explores the themes of helicopter parenting, surveillance, and consent, anchored by Rosemarie DeWitt's performance as an anxiety-ridden single mom. When Marie (DeWitt) has child monitoring technology implanted in her young daughter, Sara, it's merely a safety precaution. However, as Sara gets older, the technology inhibits her personal autonomy — specifically her relationship with Trick, played by Teague.

Upon seeing Sara having sex and doing drugs with Trick, Marie angrily confronts him at work and blackmails him against seeing Sara again. "'Black Mirror' was fun and intriguing because of how they made a world so similar to ours yet so different," Teague told Vestal magazine. For Teague, the highlight was working with director Jodie Foster: "She was fantastic! As an actor who became a director, it was seamless for her to direct as she knows both positions well."

2019 was a busy year for Owen Teague. In addition to "I See You" and "It: Chapter Two," Teague appeared in the films "Inherit the Viper" and "Mary." He also landed his biggest television role since "Bloodline" in HBO's "Mrs. Fletcher."

Based on the novel by Tom Perrotta and directed by a suite of female filmmakers including Nicole Holofcener and Gillian Robespierre, "Mrs. Fletcher" stars Kathryn Hahn as Eve Fletcher, a divorcée facing an impending empty nest. With more time to herself than she's had in years, Eve enrolls in a creative writing class where she meets Julian, a recent high school graduate.

Eve and Julian form an unlikely bond, made all the more unusual by the fact that her son was his high school bully. Eve may be Julian's senior by decades, but he has a mature air about him. "I feel like he's closer to me than some of the people that I've played," Teague told W magazine. "But he's got this wisdom that I liked. He feels like a 40-year-old stuck in a 19-year-old's body."

Pandemics and plagues are TV's hottest plot device, as evidenced by "Station Eleven," "The Last of Us," and the CBS All Access miniseries "The Stand." For Owen Teague, who plays the sociopathic Harold Lauder in "The Stand," the parallels to real life aren't lost on him. "In 'The Stand,' there's a plague and half the surviving human race rallies around a blonde-haired autocrat who feeds on hatred and fear and is really just using all of his followers to ... oh wait, that's real life," the actor joked in a 2021 interview with Da Man.

"The Stand" is Teague's latest project adapted from a Stephen King book, and the actor is fast becoming a poster boy for the acclaimed author's adaptations. Of King's works, Teague considers 1978's "The Stand" a personal favorite, and credits the author with anticipating incel culture decades before it became widespread. "I think my take on Harold may actually be darker and more deranged than what King originally wrote," Teague continued, "But this is a dark period of history. I wanted him to reflect the kinds of attitudes we see so frequently that are now driving the actions of terrorists in the U.S."

Alongside big, effects-heavy projects like "It" and "The Stand," Owen Teague has maintained an interest in more intimate films and series. In 2021, he starred in "Montana Story" alongside Haley Lu Richardson, a quiet drama in which two siblings return to the family ranch in the wake of their father's coma.

Another comparatively small project, 2022's "To Leslie," proved to have a powerful ripple effect when it earned Andrea Riseborough an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Riseborough stars as Leslie, an alcoholic single mom who blows through a $190,000 lottery prize. Teague plays her estranged son, James, who lets his mother stay with him under the condition that she doesn't drink.

"To Leslie" reunited Teague and Riseborough, who had previously played a mother and son in "Bloodline." "It was wonderful to work with her again, as we shot 'Bloodline' together about five years ago. Our director, Michael Morris, was also on 'Bloodline,' so it was a little reunion," Teague told Da Man. "Of course, Riseborough is ridiculously talented. She's a chameleon."

Teague may have a place in his heart for intimate dramas, like the upcoming "You Hurt My Feelings," but he still has some big-scale projects in the works. He's also set to star in 2024's "Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes."