At such a young age, Noah Gray-Cabey has already accomplished more than some people do in a lifetime. He stars in one of the hottest shows around, has started his own nonprofit organization and has done a lot of charity work for the victims of September 11. While most television viewers know him primarily as Micah from Heroes, there is a lot more to this remarkable child actor and I begin to find out more about him when we chatted at the Heroes World Tour in Toronto.
Murtz Jaffer: You have done so much at 10 years old! Can you tell me more about the concert that you did in Portland after September 11?
Noah Gray-Cabey: Oh my goodness, yeah. Do you know any other concerts that I have done?
MJ: That’s the one that I heard about.
NGC: Okay. That’s great. Because you know what? That was my first-ever concert. It was probably on October 24. That was the concert that actually got me into acting. I did that concert for raising money for the Afghani kids in Africa, actually there’s a long story behind it. I’ll go into more detail. We wanted to raise a lot of money, so my mom thought that we could raise more money if we got the news crews to show up and then that would drag more people so we could raise more money. So she called and the news crews actually came and then I was on the news and I was like ‘oh, that’s cool.’ And then after that, I think it was Jay Leno who called after that, and asked me to be on the show. That actually fell through for a little while and then 48 Hours called. So then we were on 48 Hours, and I believe after that we were on Jay Leno and Good Morning America and Oprah and that was actually the concert that got me started in acting.
MJ: And I have also heard that you are involved in a nonprofit. Is it your nonprofit?
NGC: Me and my family’s.
MJ: Tell me more about that.
NGC: A.I.M. (Action In Music) pretty much… I can never express very well on this one or talk very well on this one because it’s hard for me to put what’s in my mind out. But I’ll try my best to explain it all because it’s kind of complex. We’re going to take inner city children who play instruments and our goal is to take them over to Third World countries to raise money for a certain cause. And the reason why we do this is to show the inner city children that even if you have it really really bad (and you do have it badly), but there’s always some out there who has it worse and it’s good to do something to help them. We’ll take them after they have raised the money in that Third World country, we’ll take them personally to go give that money that they have raised to the people that have been affected by that certain cause that we are going to be focusing on. Say it’s AIDS. It’s money to AIDS orphanages. There they will give it personally to those kids. I think that will affect them.
MJ: Now switching the focus to Heroes, I think you have one of the cooler superpowers. I can’t tell you how many times like the car is broken and I am like ‘man, do I have to call the mechanic because he’s probably going to break something else.’ Is that the ideal superpower that you would like to have or is there something… or if I said to you that you could pick any superpower that you wanted and I could just hand it to you.
NGC: Any superpower?
MJ: Any superpower.
NGC: I have got to say, I would choose Peter’s… actually, I wouldn’t choose Peter’s. I would choose to be able to change powers like Peter but not have to come into contact with others. Because then if you had the power but you had to come into contact with people, you really wouldn’t have any superpower…
MJ: If you don’t run into anyone.
NGC: Yeah, exactly and that would kind of defeat the purpose. But having any superpower that you wanted. Just be like ‘I can do this, I can do that…’ that would be the best. If I had to choose one…
MJ: That’s kind of like if I said to you that you have three wishes and the person says with my first wish, I want unlimited wishes.
NGC: Exactly.
MJ: Your family on the show is, I am not going to say dysfunctional, but clearly nobody gets along. Is it interesting working with them and how do you think Nikki and your dad are going to work together in the second season.
NGC: It will be really interesting to see. I think the family has come around though. At first, they were really mad because blah, blah, blah. But at the end of the first season, our whole weird messed up family has come together so it will be interesting to see how things go in the second season.
MJ: And finally you started your career with such a huge show. Heroes is so popular and you are instantly recognizable from it. Do you think it is an advantage to start off your career with something this big? Like now, aren’t you always going to be the kid from Heroes? Are you worried about that at all?
NGC: No, I am not. I am just happy that I am on this show man. It’s really really great. I am super happy. At this point, I think that I am just super happy to be on the show. Crossing my fingers that I don’t get killed.
MJ: I don’t think they’d kill the kid though. There’s no way.
NGC: I don’t know. They can do anything on this show.
MJ: That’s perfect, thank you so much.
NGC: Thank you!
NOAH GRAY-CABEY
Ten-year-old Noah Gray-Cabey joins NBC’s new ensemble drama series “Heroes” as Micah Sanders, a young genius whose mother is an online stripper and whose father is serving life in prison. “Heroes” follows the lives of ordinary people who discover they possess extraordinary abilities.
Gray-Cabey was a series regular on ABC’s “My Wife & Kids,” playing the precocious Franklin. Recently, he guest-starred on “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Ghost Whisperer.” He also has a supporting role in M. Night Shyamalan’s highly anticipated film “Lady in the Water.”
A trained classical pianist by the age of three, Gray-Cabey is the youngest person ever to perform at the Sydney Opera Hall. In 2001, he participated in fundraising concerts to benefit AIDS orphanages. After the events of September 11th, Gray-Cabey, with the help of his father, Shawn, and his mother, Whitney, organized a concert in Portland, Maine, to raise money for Afghan children who were displaced by the Taliban’s civil unrest. As a result, “48 Hours” did a piece on Gray-Cabey’s altruistic nature and piano talents. Soon after, he was featured on “The Tonight Show,” “Dateline,” “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and “Good Morning America,” which led to his being cast on “My Wife & Kids.”
Gray-Cabey is determined to use his talents to make a real influence in the world. He has formed a foundation called “Action in Music” that broadens the horizons of inner city children by bringing them to Africa to visit AIDS victims. His birthday is November 16.
– The second season of Heroes premieres on NBC in the U.S. on Monday, September 24 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
– The second season of Heroes premieres on the GLOBAL network in Canada on Monday, September 24 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
