Actor Aaron Goldenberg serves up life experience amid film’s comic horror.
One slow, short-staffed night at IHOP, Aaron Goldenberg lived a server’s nightmare. A party of 50 arrived near closing, and the owner’s standing orders barred him from turning them away.
Despite calling in help, Goldenberg and the kitchen were overwhelmed. The service was slow. The party of 50 stiffed him on the tip.
At least that horror wasn’t as bloody as We’re So Dead, a Dunwoody – shot, restaurant-set Christmas comedy slasher film in which Buckhead resident Goldenberg plays a snarky server. It premiered at Atlanta’s Plaza Theatre and Sandy Springs’ The Springs in September before hitting the festival circuit.
Writer-director Ken MacLaughlin’s independent film used restaurant workers on both sides of the camera, and the work also benefits them: The Giving Kitchen, a nonprofit supporting food service workers, receives a portion of screening revenue.
That mission means a lot to Goldenberg, who hasn’t forgotten restaurant work amid roles on TV series such as “The Righteous Gemstones,” “Bad Monkey” and “The Hunting Wives.”
“If somebody would give me a $20 tip, I was near tears of gratitude,” he says. “Oh, I can fill my tank. I’m getting closer to paying rent.”
Goldenberg has built a comedy following on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram since 2020 with clips such as a closeted husband lusting after a plumber, a city guy terrified to hike through the woods and a range of situations with a group called the Mean Gays.
But he has trained for serious acting since making short films with a camcorder while growing up in Miami and writing 100-page scripts “I would be mortified to read at this point.”
He took classes as a teen, attended a drama magnet program in high school and studied acting at Florida International University. But something clicked, he says, when he appeared in a University of Miami student film at 15 and realized that “everything we did on set over those two days turned into this.”
At friends’ urging, he visited Atlanta in 2019 and within three days was an extra for “The Walking Dead.” He decided to stay.
“Just realizing how quickly I was able to get on one of the most popular shows on television kind of was a light bulb moment,” he says.
He’s usually considered for gay characters—“I’m a very obviously gay person”—though “what I would love to see more in film and TV is not just LGBTQ representation but just showing these people simply living their lives and existing in the real world.”
Now 37, Goldenberg has his own stories to tell, so he is writing a book and a screenplay and plans to direct several short films. He has studied at places such as Drama Inc., Get Scene and Dad’s Garage, where he now teaches.
He loves the magic of filmmaking but also finds live theater to be beautiful. “Whenever I’m in a stage show, I typically find myself missing screen acting and then vice versa.”
Regardless of venue, he looks forward to supplementing comedy with more horror, drama and action, and less waiting tables. “I’ve been doing this my whole life,” Goldenberg says of acting, “and I want to continue doing it my whole life.”
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GOOD SERVICE
Actor/sometime server Aaron Goldenberg recommends two restaurants where he has worked:
Egg Harbor Cafe, whose locations include Buckhead, Sandy Springs and Brookhaven. “I don’t know that I have yet tasted a bad meal there.”
Roshambo in Buckhead. “Delicious. They have great seasonal menus, fresh ingredients.”
