Local actor John Chambers appears in latest episode of HBO's "Treme"

John Chambers is a local actor who
appears in Episode #203 of HBO's Treme.

If you were on facebook Saturday night during the broadcast of the HBO series Treme's thirteenth episode, entitled "On Your Way Down," you may have seen a flurry of wall posts that read, in summary: "OMG is that u on Treme, John Chambers?!"

Indeed, it was Mr. Chambers, a hard-working local actor who has appeared in dozens of stage productions (my personal favorite being the Gilbert and Sullivan Society's hip-hop Shakespeare adaptation Big Willie Style: Port City) as well as the Infamous Web Series. In Treme, John appeared as a hard-nosed, strictly by-the-book claims agent for the Road Home program. In the episode, he refuses to bend the rules to help one of the main characters process an insurance claim.

Always careful to be humble, John is quick to point out that he was "just a day player." But I don't mind saying it: Treme is already being hailed as one of the greatest television shows of all time, and writer and creator David Simon also created the venerable The Wire and NBC's Homicide: Life on the Streets. John may have just been a day player, but I'd be honored to deliver pizza to that set. John filmed for one entire day on December 13, 2010.

"It was intimidating, and it was impressive to see how they worked," John said. "It was a seamless cast and crew, everyone knew exactly where they were going with the material."

John had never seen Treme until two days before he made the drive to New Orleans to appear in the show. He was impressed by the fact that a great deal of energy is put forth by the producers to hire local. "Almost everyone on the set is local, the entire crew and almost the entire cast. That really seems to help them capture the local feel."