DAVID SIDONI
Birthdate: March 8, 1970
David James “Sid” Sidoni, a native from Southern California, was actually known more for intelligence than for talent as a child. Although his spelling wasn’t too good, he had a large vocabulary, one that came in handy with school bullies who couldn’t understand that Sid was insulting them with his large words! His first acting role came in the third grade, when he starred in the school musical, Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat. In the sixth grade, he was voted president in his class!
It was then that he became interested in pursuing entertainment. Before he hit high school, he appeared as an extra in the movie Colors. He then began avidly pursuing acting, and later became interested in singing by joining a choir. In 1986, when he was 16, he was hired to be “Peter Pan” at Disneyland (so if you went to Disneyland sometime in 1986 and met Peter Pan, you met Sid!). He later began studying at the Orange County High School of the Arts. Also, he worked as a waiter at Ed DeBevic's, featured on an episode of The Mickey Mouse Club.
Now in his senior year of high school, Sid became interested in dancing. One day, while on the soccer field, he taught himself how to do a backflip! It was at this time that his studying at the school of arts paid off when he was hired by the talent agency: Joseph, Heldfond, and Rix, Inc. His career took off from there, by first appearing as a Russian dancer in Michael Jackson’s “Black or White” music video. He also made Pepsi commercials and made guest appearances on General Hospital and Beverly Hills, 90210.
In 1992, he was cast in the Disney movie, Newsies, as Pie Eater, the acrobatic newsie mostly known for shouting, “woo!” During the filming on this movie, Gene Kelly visited the set and complemented Sid on his skills reminding him of Donald O'Connor. Around this time, he began teaching dance classes at Dance Excellence for several years. After the filming, he, and three other actors in Newsies, Mark David, Ivan Dudynsky and Dominic Lucero were cast in the Nickelodeon TV show, Roundhouse. The first season was a smash, and Sid signed on for the rest of the show. Unfortunately, his friend Dominic had to leave due to cancer. He stayed in touch with him throughout his illness.
During Roundhouse, Sid was also interviewed by Entertainment Tonight, hosted MTV Top 20 Countdown in 1993 and Snick Live! in 1994, worked with Nickelodeon as a correspondent for special Olympics and presidential elections and had his own profile commercial on Nickelodeon. On Roundhouse, he was mostly known for playing the school bully, or the “dumb kid.” Yet as the show continued, ratings began to fall rapidly. During his fourth season on the show, Dominic died, and the show was cancelled. On July 9, 1994, Sid, Ivan and Mark participated in T.J. Martell's Rocker Soccer Celebrity Match for cancer and AIDS research.
After Roundhouse, Sid began working for special shows and charities all over. Many of them include The Big Help, The Kid’s Choice Awards, Youth Service of America, Stand for Kids rallies, NBA Celebrity Slam Dunk contest, judging the 1995 Miss Teen USA pageant, and much more. He also began hosting a game show for kids called U to U: On the Road. Only four episodes aired. On December 30th, 1995, he married Karen Gresh.
Not long afterward, he hosted yet another kid’s game show, this one called Bing! The Sound of Something New. This show only lasted with ten episodes. Still, Sid refused to give up and went on to host another game show. This time, he hosted Wheel of Fortune 2000, co-hosted by computer animated “Cyber Lucy.” It lasted a good first season, but was cancelled after the second. In 1999, he got divorced.
Sid took on one more game show after that, this one called Mad Libs, aired on the Disney channel. Sixty episodes aired before it was cancelled in 2000. Since then, he was been working with the US Postal Service in their entertainment category, in which he worked with Idea Dispersment Industries for their “Celebrate the Century” campain by hosting a virtual history tour of the timeline of stamps.. He produced and acted in videos for kids, including 1999's There Goes a Dump Truck, and later moved on to direct and star in another kids video, this one for the Census Bureau. He has also spoken at schools down in Orange County, and even spoke at his former school, Orange County High School of the Arts. Then he went to New York City to pursue a career in musical theater for a short while.
On October 18, 2001, Sid actually made an appearance on ABC’s Who Wants to be a Millionaire, and was even introduced by Regis Philbin himself! This appearance was to promote the "Who Wants to be a Millionaire: Play It!" at Disney's California Adventure, where Sid was playing one of the hosts. He currently lives in Orange County and has also signed the guestbook at Strictly Sidoni, a fansite listed below. He is now re-engaged to a dancer and did a pilot for an MTV show set at Six Flags Magic Mountain. Sid is currently touring the US in the “Wheelmobile,” a traveling vehicle that allows fans of the popular game show Wheel of Fortune to take a shot at playing the game themselves. Sid gets to plays the part of Pat Sajak.
My Encounter with David Sidoni!
Strictly Sidoni
Sidoniland
The One and Only Pie Eater Shrine
David Sidoni’s chat transcript at Zoog Disney
CONTACT
David Sidoni
c/o Nickelodeon Studios
1515 Broadway
New York, NY 10036
David Sidoni
500 South Buena Vista
Burbank, CA 91521-2310
Know Your Newsies!
Miscellaneous
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