CURRY BARKER'S INDIE HUSTLE: FROM ROOMMATE HORROR SHORTS TO FOCUS FEATURES

Curry Barker's rise has been *fast*—but it didn't happen in a vacuum. Before he was the name on a Focus Features and Blumhouse Atomic Monster project, Barker was grinding it out with collaborators like 29-year-old actor Anthony Pavone, who watched his roommate's career ignite from inside their shared home. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Pavone even appeared in one of Barker's early 2023 horror shorts, *The Chair*, before the pair both auditioned for bigger gigs like *Obsession* and *Anything But Ghosts*. "Don't just hand me a role because it's your friend," Pavone told THR—and that scrappy, merit-based ethos seems to have stuck with Barker.

Now, fresh off his *Obsession* breakout, Barker is channeling that indie spirit into his next project, *Anything But Ghosts*, a supernatural horror he's co-writing and directing alongside co-writer and producer Cooper Tomlinson, who also stars in the film. Deadline reports that the pair deliberately chose to "stay scrappy" on set—keeping the production grounded and intimate rather than letting a bigger studio machine swallow the magic. "You could ruin the magic," Tomlinson explained, and Barker clearly agrees: this isn't a guy trading his DIY roots for blockbuster bloat.

It's a refreshing move in a town where breakout success usually means bigger budgets and bigger crews. Barker's proving you don't have to choose between ambition and authenticity—and his collaborators are 100% here for it.