Mason Gooding, 'Scream' king and successful actor without dad's help

Many Hollywood stars have children who followed into their footsteps and succeeded in show business. Oscar-winning actor Cuba Gooding Jr.'s son Mason seems to have built his acting career without dad's help. He even wrote his way into his own, adjusted role in the 'Scream' saga!

Born in Los Angeles on November 14, 1996, Mason Gooding is the second of three siblings. Together with his older brother (Spencer) and his little sister (Piper) he is the child of Cuba Gooding Jr. and his ex-wife, Sara Kapfer.

Mason grew up in an artistic environment. Besides his father, his uncle Omar Gooding is also an actor, and his grandfather Cuba Gooding Sr. was a singer in the R&B band 'The Main Ingredient.'

In high school, Mason excelled in sports, especially American Football. After four years, he decided to shift his attention to another interest and career: acting.

In 2015, Mason was admitted to the New York Tisch School of the Arts, where he studied dramatic writing and psychology. However, after getting some small TV roles, he decided to drop out.

In 2018 he played Parker Jones in the television series 'Ballers.' The HBO production was created by Stephen Levinson and led by actor Dwayne Johnson. It was Mason Gooding's opportunity to boost his acting career.

That same year, Mason began to make small appearances in big series, such as 'The Good Doctor.' There, he played a patient of Doctor Shaun Murphy (Freddie Highmore).

In 2019, the role of Nick in the movie 'Booksmart' (directed by Olivia Wilde) helped Mason break through on the big screen. He starred alongside Kaitlyn Dever, Jason Sudeikis, and Lisa Kudrow.

In that same year, we could see him the Netflix movie 'Let It Snow'. In this Christmas romcom, Mason played the boyfriend of Addie (Odeya Rush), a completely paranoid girl who's convinced that her boyfriend is going to cheat on her.

In the TV show 'Everything's Gonna Be Okay' (2020) he was Luke, the platonic crush of Matilda (Kayla Cromer), the autistic sister of protagonist Nicholas (Josh Thomas).

In that same year, he had the main role in the teen web series 'Love, Victor'. The show, created by Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger, was inspired by the movie 'Love, Simon' (2018), Mason starred as the popular and arrogant basketball player of the Creekwood High School.

Mason also made small appearances in shows like 'Star Trek: Picard', where he emerged briefly as Gabriel Hwang.

August 2021 brought Mason an interesting project. He co-starred with Kesha and Chloe Bailey in the scripted podcast, 'Electric Easy': a neo-noir sci-fi music program set in a futuristic L.A. where humans fight to co-exist with robots, known as 'electrics'.

In 'Scream 5,' released in 2022, Mason Gooding starred as Chad Meeks-Martin, a member of Tara Carpenter's (Jenna Ortega) friendship group. He is the twin of Mindy Meeks-Martin (Jasmin Savoy-Brown) and one of the first people to consider Vince Schneider (Kyle Garner) as a suspect in the 'Ghostface' murders…

By 2023, the sixth installment of 'Scream' is coming around, and Chad is once again in it! Reviewers and the creator of the first parts of the slasher saga have reacted approvingly to trailers of the new film, SyFy Wire reports. It premiers on March 10, 2023.

The relationship between Mason Gooding and 'Scream' started a long time ago. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the actor confessed that while he was studying in New York, he wrote a six-page article about why 'Scream' was the only franchise that deserved to come back.

According to that same interview, years later, in a meeting with Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillet, Gooding told them about the article and, surprisingly, the movie directors were really interested.

Mason Gooding didn't waste any time and sent it to them right away. The idea turned out to be brilliant, as the directors didn't just offer him a role in the new movie, but they also changed the script especially for Gooding's character.

Besides the Amazon movie 'I Want You Back', Gooding had another big project with 'Moonshot'. In this HBO Max sci-fi romcom, Mason starred as Calvin, the boyfriend of the protagonist, Sophie (Lana Condor). Calvin has moved to Mars and Sophie goes after him.

After the unexpected success of his unpublished 'Scream' essay, Mason Gooding has continued to write. His 2022 'Variety' article has a serious and important topic: the influence of black artists in the entertainment industry. He uses the role of Chadwick Boseman in 'Black Panther' as an example.

On his social media we can see that Mason loves anime, sports (especially boxing), video games, and music. He plays the guitar and, as he has explained, music really helps him to better understand the roles he has to prepare for.

With two 'Scream' films and a wide range of other roles, Mason Gooding has a promising future. Will there be an Oscar in it, just as for his father (in 'Jerry Maguire')?