Local boy actor stars in new show on Showtime

Ethan Cutkosky of Campton Hills is an 11-year-old boy with interests any 11-year-old boy would have, his mother, Yvonne Cutkosky, said.

Being cast in a TV show is what makes this fifth-grader different.

Ethan plays Carl Gallagher on "Shameless," a Showtime series that premiered Sunday. According to the network's website, the show stars William H. Macy, who plays Frank Gallagher, a father of six whose eldest daughter – played by Emmy Rossum – keeps the family together. Carl, the second-youngest Gallagher child, is known for breaking rules. The fictional family lives in working-class Chicago.
Due to the show's mature content, Ethan is unable to watch episodes in their entirety, his mother said. She said he watches censored versions of the show his father, David, edits for him.

“He understands,” Cutkosky said.

Ethan attends Bell-Graham Elementary, a District 303 school, when not filming on the Warner Brothers studio lot in Burbank, Calif., or on location in Chicago, Cutkosky said. She noted he keeps up with his education on set with a tutor.

Cutkosky, whose husband is with Ethan in California, hears about their days by phone and is told the cast and crew have been good to her son. She can’t say it has been easy having them away, but the family is managing, she said.

“I’ve been out there, and they came home in November to film,” she said.

She said she expects Ethan to be home soon because filming is scheduled to wrap at the end of this month in Chicago.

“He is anxious to get home and back to his normal routine,” Cutkosky said.

Ethan also starred in 2009’s “The Unborn,” but the Cutkoskys aren’t aiming to make him a child star, his mother said. The acting opportunities happened naturally after he did commercial and print advertising work, she said.

He was able to act in “Shameless” because the family was able to make the arrangements work, Cutkosky said.

“We’re still working it out,” she said. “We don’t know what the future is going to hold at all with the show.”

The money Ethan earns goes into a trust fund for college, she said.

When to watch

What: "Shameless," a series on Showtime

When: 9 p.m. Sundays

Reason to watch: Campton Hills boy Ethan Cutkosky is part of the cast