Derrick Paul Kosinski

Well...it all began from a tear in the knee, which took my focus off of school and sports, and led me to look closer into the entertainment world.  The goal was to become a teacher and a coach someday.  And I stil wanted to pursue that field. But because I couldn't stay active for a while, I needed something to fill that void. I still had the spirit, the drive, the passion, the competitive nature, the strive to be the best and have fun doing it.  Most of all, I wanted to stay interested in something that fascinated me and that I knew was going to be a challenge.  I knew that this world was going to take me outside of my boundaries and I felt deep down inside that I was going to enjoy it...so, I took an acting class.  In this acting class, I was able to express myself in only a way I could do in front of my close friends, only now I had a teacher that would direct me and give me opportunities to reach deep down and find interesting ways to interact with a work of art.  The work of art was, of course, acting.  At some point, Ms. Interrante had told me to try out for a school play. She said, "Derrick, there's a role in there for you.  You should try out."  I was like, "sweeet."  "This is gonna be fun.  I love this acting stuff."  And I couldn't wait to learn more.  People were telling me I was good at it.  My teacher talked me into trying out for the school play, and I just merely enjoyed turning myself into these different characters in these different situations. 

In the midst of going to school, waiting on tables at a restaurant, having an intresting social life, living with parents that constantly nagged me about school, work and money......I was looking for a way out.  Which is also a big reason why I took the acting class.  I knew life wasn't going to be easy.  Life was fun, but the way I was dreamin...life for sure wasn't going to be easy. LOL.  But, entertaining and fun at the very least.

So, like most 18 and 19 year old kids in my era, I was watching a very popular program on MTV called "The Real World."  After one of the episodes was over,a commercial said,"If you'd like to be the next cast member on Real World or Road Rules, go to this website."  I was like,"Maaaan...I could do what those people are doing.  Follow ME around with a camera! I could have my own show."  So I went to the website and it told me to send in a video or go to a casting call.  Well, I missed the closest casting call in Chicago by a day and had to resort to sending a video.  So once I found a camera to use, I had to overcome the very difficult task of telling my life story and making it entertaining enough for "MTV" (the most entertaining network of my generation) and having them pick me out of an approximate amount of 50,000 people!  And I have to do this by talking to a little bitty machine.  The lens a size of a quarter.  "Yeah, this is gonna work out great (pure sarcasm)," I said to myself.  Let's just say that I failed at that task.  =0).

But I was determined, and completely felt like I would have a decent shot at getting on one of these shows.   After all, why wouldn't they like me.  And who knows...what if I did get picked?  I would probably get to experience something really cool.  At the very least I would have tried, failed and been able to say I tried.  There was one more shot.  Madison,Wisconsin was an hour and a half away.  "Who's comin with me." LOL. I asked myself.  All my boys were like "nope" "never gonna happen" that's stupid" "yyyeah okay, right on it."   Buuut...my girls, on the other hand, were like "let's do it."  So, we're off.

Off to stand in a line for 4 hours...LOL.  Yeah, so we stood in line for 4 hours, got up in a room with 10 people who I didn't know with 1 casting director.  We'd got asked our name and favorite movie as an introduction.  Then we had a discussion about gay mariage, interracial dating and our interpretations on what's cheating.  In the end we were asked to make an ASSUMPTION about someone in the group who we didn't know.  Let's just say,to make a long story short, I stood out in the crowd and was asked to stay back...and fill out 2 1/2 hours of paperwork.  All personal questions about my life.  MTV called me back that same night!  I was in disbelief and thought "wow,this is really happening."   I did an interview the next day that I felt went really well.  They must have somewhat liked me because then that casting director asked me to send in a 10 minute video, that I was having trouble with a week ago ,along with 2 photographs.  But, this time my thinking cap was on, and I had about a week and a half to get this video done.  So I video taped about a week of what goes on in my life, found an editor to help me cut the video down to 10 minutes and boom!  I'm shipping off the only copy I have along with the two most interesting pictures I owned.  Ironically,I did another interview in Chicago with 2 casting directors. This time I had to perform the running man and the roger rabbit to like Nsync or something like that and give my best impression of an orgasm.  Yeah..LOL..random.  But I did it.  Finally, I got flown out to L.A. for my first time ever, to conduct a "Final Interview."  Now, at this point, I know it's down to like 30 people out 50,000.  Where I thought I had my worst interview, I found out was my best.  A month later, after about 6 total months, I got a call from a producer asking if I was still willing to have my life video taped for the next 2 months.  I was like, " that's it, just 2 months?" He said, "trust me it's gonna feel like a really long time."  I responded with "Hellll YYYeeeah!" 

The show I got chosen for was called Road Rules.  The main goal of the show was to get thru 16 missions without getting eliminated, in order to win a handsome reward at the end.  The show was based in Chile and Argentina.  I lived on an RV for 2 months with 8 total different strangers and a stray dog we picked up somewhere along the line  and took care of.  I ended up winning in the end.  One example of a mission is bunjee-jumping out of a helicopter into an active volcano and that was the very first one.  The rest of the missions were gnarley, to say the least.

After the original show, MTV does a spin-off show called "The Real World/Road Rules Challenge." We'll say, the more interesting and competitive past cast members from Real World and Road Rules are chosen and broken up into teams where they compete in a series of challenges that require physical,emotional, and mental toughness.  It gets very intense. 

I have been the only person to be given the opportunity to participate in 7 seasons in a row on a show that gets 2-4 million viewers each week.  I've just recently completed my 9th show which will be airing in September.  I've pretty much grown up on these shows.  I've gone from a rambounxious young 19 year old kid to a 25 year old loving husband and father.

I live in West Virginia with my gorgeous wife and beautiful son. 

I love staying involved and it would be a joy continuing this adventure.  I co-star in a film that is in it's final stages of post-production called Hyenas.  I had the pleasure of working with some great actors in my first film. I'm very pround and extremely appreciative to have been able to work with these people on my first film.  You may recognize some of the names Costas Mandylor (Saw IV and V), Meeshack Taylor (Designing Women, Mannequin), Joshua Alba (8 Films to Die For), Christina Murphy (Dance Flick), Rudolph Martin (Swordfish).  Just to name a few.  Like I said, I'm just proud to have been given the opportunity for the role.  I'm excited to see where the road will continue.