Rafi Gavron

When Rafi Gavron’s bookish parents told him he could be anything he wanted, he took up skiing, Roller-blading, and gymnastics. It was the last sport that offered what he calls a “physical escape.” “I wanted that balance in the air,” says London-born Gavron, “with that awareness how to fall.” Fortunately, his experiences thus far in his ultimate career of choice-acting-have involved more big leaps than bone-rattling tumbles. His breakthrough performance came in Breaking and Entering, the 2006 drama from the late Anthony Minghella in which the actor relied heavily on his gazelle-like physicality to play an agile thief. But it’s the 19-year-old’s role in the new comedy Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist, a joyride through the musical heart of Manhattan’s Lower East Side, which just might make him a star. Gavron plays Dev, the lead singer of the Jerk Offs, a band featuring the film’s protagonist, Nick (Michael Cera), on bass. “I just hadn’t calculated that I would have to sing,” says Gavron, who laid down his vocals at New York’s famed Electric Lady Studios. “I was thinking, Shit, Jimi Hendrix’s studio, and I’m the worst musician to ever record here,” he laughs. “I’m hugely proud of that.” -SARAH WILSON