4-year-old tells parents he must learn to read faster so he can be an actor
Now the boy from Michigan has Chevy, Dodge ads on his resume
I can’t stop thinking about Henry Melitz.
There he stood, dressed as a 1930s newsboy — a canvas bag over his shoulder, a pamphlet in his tiny hand.
Heads turned.
The 8-year-old second grader from Troy, Michigan, smiled.
A global crowd had gathered that night for the sold-out Automotive Hall of Fame awards at Michigan Central Station in Detroit. The old train depot in Corktown was transformed into an Oscar-like setting.
Bill Ford, chair of the 101-year-old automaker founded by his great-grandfather, would be inducted at age 67. He had waited a long, long time. Friends and colleagues and business associates who led multi-billion dollar companies gathered around Ford.
They wore tuxedos and long gowns.
Champagne flowed.
Actors in period costumes milled throughout the room that night.
Henry captured the imagination of so many guests, including Jane Garcia.
Garcia is a well-known Ford Motor Co. shareholder who regularly questions Bill Ford during shareholder calls. She is also chairman of the board for LA SED (Latin Americans for Social and Economic Development).
At one point, the crowd parted to make way for the boy and social justice advocate.
Garcia marched right up to the most prominent member of Detroit’s industrial royalty, with Henry in tow, because she felt compelled to make an introduction
“I’m just so sorry I didn’t take his picture, as Bill Ford extended his hand to shake Henry’s hand and said, ‘Hi, I’m Bill Ford.’ So sweet,” Garcia told me afterward.
When she first saw Henry, he tried to remain in character. But Garcia found the child intriguing and couldn’t resist asking questions. She explained that her husband is named Henry and so is her newest great-grandson.
“It’s a great name,” Garcia said.
Henry disappeared into the crowd, returning to his role as a newsboy.
Children gather at a random hotel in Southfield
It all began with a radio ad that urged children and their families to attend a cattle call audition at a hotel in Southfield, Michigan. Dreams do come true, it promised.
Henry was one of hundreds, if not thousands, who went.
At age 4.
Auditions involved walking down an aisle a certain way and introducing yourself to the huge crowd. The families also had to sit in large room and listen to a sales pitch about how this experience could change their lives.
When Henry didn’t get called back, he was crushed, his mom said. Henry’s parents told him that actors get used to rejection and roles happen only after lots of hard work. They figured this idea about acting would pass. After all, a desire to play the violin came and went after a few lessons.
But this is a kid who enjoyed doing voices and characters.
Instead, Henry doubled down.
Just one item on the holiday wish list
He requested only one gift for Christmas: Acting lessons.
He focused more on learning to read, explaining that he needed to read lines of a script if he planned to act.
“We have no idea where this came from,” Beth Melitz, 41, director of continuous improvement at DePaul University. “He doesn’t consume social media but he loves to create. He makes videos himself. He asked to be an actor at age 4 and we didn’t understand what that meant to him. We thought, ‘Yeah, sure. You can be an actor.”
Like many elementary school kids, Henry loves Ninja and soccer. Unlike most of his classmates, he has a profile on IMDb (the Internet Movie Database listing of actors, film credits), Instagram (whoishenrym) and a resume with film and TV commercial credits, plus agents in three states.
After four years of pursuing a dream, Henry is a professional actor now.
Henry randomly goes to school in costume
Imagine having no idea which character your son will be on any given day.
And not because it’s Halloween.
“He’s always been the kind of kid to put on a costume in the morning. One day, he came in wearing an orange T-shirt inside out with a ballpoint pen in his pocket,” said Henry’s father, Ben.
It turns out Henry is dressed as Percy Jackson, a teenager who discovers he’s a descendent of a Greek God, from “The Lightning Thief.” Henry loved reading the Percy Jackson books which have led to a series on Disney.
The other day, Henry grabbed a ghost costume out of the closet that he wore at age 3 and it covered only up to his belly button. He wore it to school anyway.
Henry told his mother, after his first audition rejection, that he would never miss out again due to a lack of preparation. He takes acting lessons in person and virtually. He especially likes The Prep, a New Jersey-based acting program for all ages.
Ben Melitz, a self-described nerd engineer who works for Stellantis (specializing in noise, vibration and harshness), can’t figure out the source of Henry’s drive toward acting.
But the family is all about support and discovery.
While acting has taken center stage, Henry also enjoys going to the ballet. His aunt is a retired professional ballerina, so live performance does not feel foreign.
They go to musicals at Cranbook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, as well as theater at the Opera House in Detroit (“Wicked”) and theater in New York (“Harry Potter”).
Chevy ad gets national attention, Ad Age writeup
Henry filmed a short movie “New Home” in New York over the summer, and now uses that 1:37-minute reel clip for auditions.
He was also in the highly emotional, award-winning Chevrolet commercial “A Holiday to Remember” in 2023 about a family’s love for a woman with Alzheimer’s, directed by Tom Hooper, who won an Oscar for “The King’s Speech” in 2011.
Earlier this year, Henry was featured in a video teaser for the Next-Gen Dodge Charger electric muscle car. His voice as a newsboy also accompanies vintage footage of what appears to be downtown Detroit in the early 1900s.
Henry is seen in multiple frames, close up and far away. It’s this role that led to the Hall of Fame gig.
“He’s still a kid who is happy doing nothing,” Ben Melitz said of his son. “When he finds these things, like acting and Ninja and soccer, we have no reason not to help him dive in.”
Balance is key, Ben and Beth Melitz said.
Not pushing. Making sure a child feels happy and safe.
Right now, Henry is having fun and enjoying school and just being Henry.
That includes having a ring light to film auditions from home.
These days, Beth and Ben Melitz pay close attention to what plays on the radio.
When asked about a quote for this article, Henry said that he'd like to add, "I'm just getting started.”
His parents burst out laughing.
As a former reporter at The Des Moines Register and lecturer at the annual Okoboji Writers Retreat in Iowa, Phoebe Wall Howard is part of the Iowa Writers Collaborative.
What a heartwarming introduction to Henry. Thanks, Phoebe!
wonderful story. gives me hope.