Why Tommy From Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark Looks So Familiar

The 2019 film "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" drew in many horror fans, in particular because it's based on the well-known stories written by Alvin Schwartz and illustrated by Stephen Gammell. Another draw is that the movie was developed from a screen story by acclaimed filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, who made movies like "The Shape of Water," "Pan's Labyrinth," and "Crimson Peak." 

On film, "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" revolves around a group of children growing up in a small town in Pennsylvania in 1968, as they discover a mysterious book of horror stories in a rumored haunted house while hiding out from a bully. New stories soon begin appearing in the book that seem to foretell events happening in the town itself. Viewers were left with a number of questions upon watching the film. Chief among them was why the town bully, Tommy Milner, looked like someone viewers had seen before. As it happens, the performer's name is Austin Abrams, and he has popped up in a number of major projects.

Austin Abrams had his breakout role in 2015, in the young adult romantic drama "Paper Towns," in which he starred alongside Cara Delevingne and Justice Smith. In the film, Abrams plays Benjamin Starling, who goes by Ben. One of the best friends of Quentin Jacobsen, who goes by Q and is played by Nat Wolff. When Q's childhood friend and neighbor Margo (Cara Delevingne) goes missing after spending a night with Q going on a revenge spree, Q enlists the help of Ben and Marcus (Justice Smith), his other best friend, to find clues on where she might have gone.

While looking for Margo, Q bonds with and befriends Lacey Pemberton (Halston Sage) one of Margo's best friends before her disappearance. She joins the group in their search for Margo, and joins the road trip when Q realizes where Margo has gone. On the trip, Ben and Lacey grow close, and ultimately decide to go to prom together. 

2015 saw Abrams make another big appearance on television, in the AMC zombie apocalypse drama "The Walking Dead." He first appears in the show's fifth season, playing Ron Anderson, a resident of Alexandria. Ron lives in the safe zone with his father Pete (Corey Brill), mother Jessie (Alexandra Breckenridge), and younger brother Sam (Major Dodson).

Ron initially befriends Carl Grimes (Chandler Riggs) when the two meet in the show's fifth season. However, Pete and Carl's father Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) end up at loggerheads when Rick comes to know that Pete is abusing Jessie. In a fit, Pete goes after Rick, but kills the husband of the town's leader by mistake, leading to his authorized execution by Rick.

In Season 6, Ron looks to get revenge against Carl and Rick due to the execution of Pete. Ron gets shooting lessons from Rick and Carl under false pretenses, and during a subsequent zombie attack on Alexandria, tries to kill Carl but fails. As the group try to navigate through the zombies, first Sam, then Jessie, are eaten by the horde — which causes Ron to turn his gun on Rick. Killed before he can shoot, Ron nonetheless squeezes the trigger reflexively, with the stray bullet hitting Carl in his right eye, blinding him there.

Abrams made a big splash in 2019 with an appearance in the NBC drama series "This Is Us." He had a key role in the show's fourth season as Marc McKeon, a former boyfriend of Kate Pearson, played by Chrissy Metz as an adult and Hannah Zeile as a teenager.

Marc first appears in the season's fourth episode, titled "Flip a Coin," as an employee of the record store where Kate is hired. He crashes a dinner party hosted by Kate and Rebecca (Mandy Moore), and introduces himself as Kate's boyfriend, earning the ire of Kate's brothers. Despite this, the two do subsequently engage in a relationship, one that Kate finds tumultuous due to Marc's behavior. One day, while driving to the family cabin, Marc tells Kate that he has quit his job at the record store. When Kate refuses to quit alongside him, Marc insults her and kicks her out of the car, causing her to call Rebecca. When Marc returns, apologizing for his behavior, Kate tells Rebecca that everything is fine, but Rebecca, uneasy about Marc, decides to go to the cabin with her sons.

When the Pearson family arrives at the cabin the next day, they find out that Marc verbally abused Kate and locked her out, and Kate had to break a window to get back in. Rebecca kicks Marc out, ending the relationship. Kate subsequently discovers that she is pregnant, surmising that Marc is the father, and gets an abortion.

Abrams then made the jump from NBC to HBO, appearing in the series "Euphoria" as Ethan Lewis alongside Zendaya and Sydney Sweeney. Ethan first appears in the pilot episode of the series, sidling up to Kat Hernandez, played by Barbie Ferreira. Ethan continues his advances on Kat over the course of the season, both in school and in parties held by friends of theirs, but despite responding positively to his advances, Kat rejects the idea of getting into a relationship with him due to her own insecurities over being objectified for her weight, both positively and negatively. In the first season finale, though, at the winter dance, Ethan promises that he likes Kat for more than superficial reasons, and he promises not to hurt her.

In the show's second season, Kat and Ethan are officially a couple. However, Kat is beginning to have doubts about their relationship, due to wanting to be treated differently than how Ethan treats her, which in turn leads to feelings of guilt over her lack of complete satisfaction.

2020 brought Abrams his first TV lead role, in the Netflix Christmas romantic comedy miniseries "Dash & Lily." 

Abrams plays the titular Dash alongside Midori Francis, who plays Lily. In the show, Dash is a teenager, whose dislike of the holiday season — and recent breakup–  causes him to opt to lie to both his jet-setting parents, so he can spend Christmas on his own in New York City. While browsing a bookstore, Dash comes across a notebook planted by a mysterious stranger, and after doing the dare written in it, he lists one of his own. Dash and Lily get to know each other through this notebook, pushing each other out of their own comfort zones, and Dash even meets Lily's great aunt in his pursuit of her. The two unknowingly cross paths at a party where Lily is mending fences with an old school bully while Dash is there with his ex-girlfriend. Upon learning each others' identity, the two move past their hang-ups, and end the series by getting together on New Year's Eve.