Spencer James is the main protagonist in All American on CW. He's a great football player coming from a poor neighborhood. He gets selected to play for a new team that has all the resources and money to turn him into a star.
CW launched All American on October 10, 2018. It is a sports drama TV series that exhibits people's lifestyles in contrasting neighborhoods such as Crenshaw and Beverly Hills.
All American is fundamentally based on the life of NFL linebacker Spencer Paysinger. Spencer Paysinger was a native of South Central Los Angeles. He attended school and even played football in Beverly Hills because the program created numerous opportunities for people of different backgrounds.
Who is Spencer James in All American?
Daniel Ezra plays the lead character in the drama All American. He is a student-athlete at South Crenshaw High School, who plays the wide receiver position for the school football team. Spencer finds himself recruited to Beverly High School team by Coach Billy Baker after which he enters a completely different world.
He is then invited to attend the Golden Angeles University. Spencer has to battle and start his journey from scratch to become the star player of the country's top college football team as he enters his true freshman season. Along with things turning out good for him, he finds himself engaged in personal relationship complications.
Who was Spencer Paysinger in real life?
Spencer Paysinger is a former NFL player, whose life experiences inspired the CW series, All American. He was born and raised in South Los Angeles. During his time at Beverly Hills High School, Paysinger played football, and then went on to continue playing on college teams and graduated from the University of Oregon in 2010 with an economics degree.
After college, Paysinger in 2011, signed with the New York Giants as a free agent. Paysinger played for the Giants between 2011 and 2014 and helped the team win the Super Bowl. He later served the Miami Dolphins for two seasons.
He was scheduled to play with the New York Jets in 2017 but was waived before the commencement of the season. Paysinger concluded his career with the Carolina Panthers, during which he played three games before being released and then retired.
Is Billy Baker based on a real person?
Yes, Billy Barker is a real person. His character in All American is loosely based on real-life Spencer's uncle, Carter. In 2019, Spencer told TV Guide that Carter was his football coach at Beverly Hills High. Of their relationship, he said:
“At that age, he was essentially a father figure to me. We still have a very close relationship to this day. Being at Beverly and having someone have my back kept me on my toes and taught me not to get comfortable in this environment. I wouldn’t trade that for the world.”
How accurate is All American?
All American is inspired by the true story of Spencer Paysinger, who was a former NFL linebacker and played football at Beverly Hills High School as part of its multicultural program.
During an appearance on the In The Zone podcast, Paysinger discussed going from being a linebacker for the New York Giants to a producer of the series. He spoke about how the show had taken creative liberties and adapted his story:
“There are some moments in the pilot that I wrote, that I changed, so to see those acted on a grand scale like that and then people actually like it was something that completely redefined the goals that I wanted in my life."
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Six seasons of the show are currently available to stream on Prime Video.
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