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Adam Brown’s already had a day named for him. He’s also played Hamlet, studied Shakespeare in Oxford, England, and performed

at the Lincoln Center. He has dozens of commercial credits, just recently appeared nationally on comedian Tom Mabe’s new CMT show “Mabe in America,” and has reprised a role in Actors Theatre’s perennial favorite, “A Christmas Carol,” three times. He’s all of 18 years old. 

If I’ve ever personally witnessed “one to watch,” Adam Brown is it. Brown walks in Third Avenue Café with the air of relaxed confidence typical of teenage boys who long ago discovered they’re really good at something: Their talents are so established, there’s little need for self-promotion. He’s also polite, apologizing profusely when his cell goes off during our interview, and encouraging me to order food. In other words, he’s a well-bred Southern fellow.

As a performer, he exhibits an assurance that belies his youth. His theatrical stomping grounds since he was 9, Walden Theatre is home to lots of kids who have talent and desires to pursue acting professionally. Yet Brown always managed to stand out with a polish to his performances most young actors gain only after rigorous classical training and professional experience. 

He’s had quite a bit of both already. He holds Walden in highest regards, heralding it his “home away from home,” and calls his director at the Youth Performing Arts School, Georgette Kleier-Hottois, a “genius.” He also had the opportunity of a lifetime when, upon winning the ESU National Shakespeare Competition in New York (for which Mayor Abramson declared April 24, 2007, “Adam Brown Day”), he spent a month at the British American Drama Academy (BADA) studying with some of Britain’s foremost actors and directors. 

This fall, he heads for the Theatre School at DePaul University in Chicago, where he won an academic scholarship. “The paths that my life can take right now … it’s incredibly exciting for me,” Brown says. But don’t expect this Louisvillian to forget his roots. “The hardest part about going to school will be having to watch Louisville disappear in the back window. … I’d love to get some recognition as an actor and move back here to raise a family.” —Rebecca Haithcoat