Having acted in film and television for more than 10 years, Hill Country Village native Ben Gavin is now relishing his first lead role in a movie.

Gavin stars in “A Place Called Home,” which Los Angeles company Freestyle Digital Media released on various streaming platforms Dec. 20.

According to a news release, “A Place Called Home” follows Gavin’s character Levi Collins, a widow who is raising two young girls and is forced to borrow money to save his family and his home.

The movie chronicles Levi’s efforts to face and overcome a sudden personal tragedy alongside his two young daughters and his attempt to land stable employment and avert further trouble at the hands of a loan shark.

“I couldn’t be more proud of this film. We worked hard on this,” Gavin told Community Impact from his North Texas home.

Gavin was born in San Antonio and grew up in Hill Country Village, attending Churchill High School for his first two years of high school.

With personal connections in the area, Gavin’s father moved his family to Boston, where Gavin graduated high school. But as Gavin put it, he initially got interested in acting during his time back in San Antonio while attending Bush Middle School and then Bradley Middle School.

“I really enjoyed my time there,” Gavin said of the Bradley Middle School theater arts program.

Gavin said he developed his theatrical acting skills while playing football and baseball at Churchill. He said athletics and auditioning for a role and performing live on stage are a little similar in nature.

“I like competition. I also like the process of acting and performing,” he said.

Gavin returned to Texas when he received a Division 1 baseball scholarship from The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, where he also majored in theatrical arts.

Shortly after college, Gavin moved to Los Angeles to pursue a movie acting career, receiving some support from family connections there.

Gavin made his film debut with a role as an assistant deputy in director J.J. Abrams’ sci-fi feature “Super 8.”

Gavin has since had more than 25 co-starring or supporting roles, mainly in small/independent films.

But he also appeared briefly in the movie adaptation of Stephen King’s “The Dark Tower” and co-starred in the Lifetime TV movie “Missing at 17” and the Hallmark movie “My Christmas Love.”

Gavin said he also has performed some black box community theater shows over the years.

But “A Place Called Home” is Gavin’s first lead performance, one he and colleagues shot for the cameras in 2019 prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It was something I had always been striving for,” Gavin said of landing his first lead film role.

In the news release, Kiel Thorlton, who wrote and directed “A Place Called Home,” said he and the rest of the movie crew and cast were happy to get their film released.

“‘A Place Called Home’ should have you holding your loved ones tight. It’s a Southern gothic film that has a true country vibe to it. To be able to bring so many professionals to the Southern town I grew up in, in order to film this beautiful and intimate story, was an amazing experience,” Thorlton said in the release.

Thorlton told Community Impact that he sought to integrate his life experiences of growing up in the rural South and becoming a father into a film plot.

“The story developed from there and became an exercise in imagining my life on a very different path. I really enjoy looking at family dynamics and seeing what make them tick. ‘A Place Called Home,’ for me, does that,” Thorlton said.

Gavin said he enjoyed bonding with his fellow “A Place Called Home” cast members, saying he felt a semblance of ownership with this movie.

“I felt like it was my project, that it it was my role,” he said.

While Gavin and his wife Danielle live in Plano and each have their own small noncinematic businesses, Gavin said he is always on the lookout for different kinds of film acting roles.

Gavin is shooting a movie called “The Devil Comes to Kansas City.” Even with a busy life and career, Gavin said he still hopes to visit family in San Antonio on occasion.

“I really want to be part of the movie industry,” he added.