Anthony Pyatt grew up in the shadow of Walt Disney World and now the actor has landed a hot role in Disney's hit film series “Descendants.”

Pyatt, who graduated from Lake Howell High in Winter Park, plays a young version of Hades, the flaming blue-haired villain from Disney's Hercules, in “Descendants: The Rise of Red.” The fourth film in the series focuses on the teenage offspring of Disney villains and will be released on July 12 on the streaming service Disney+ and in August on the cable television channel Disney Channel.

“My whole life feels like it's taken a new direction,” says Pyatt, who is looking forward to attending the Hollywood premiere with his girlfriend and two best friends, where he will be reunited with co-stars he hasn't seen since filming wrapped in March 2023.

Although he has appeared in other television shows before, including an episode of ABC's “Will Trent,” this role feels like a major breakthrough. It is certainly his most high-profile project.

“I had a passion for television and film as a child,” says Pyatt, whose professional training includes courses at the Circle in the Square Theatre School in New York City and ClassAct Studios in Orlando.

He is well aware that success follows its own timetable.

“It can feel so unattainable,” he says. “It will never happen in the time you want it to.”

He hopes that the role in “Rise of Red” will give his career a new lease of life – and there are already signs of this: He has just booked another appearance in a television show that will begin filming in a few months.

Pyatt finds that he enjoys immersing himself in the diversity of his roles.

“I’m much more interested in being a working actor than being famous,” he says.

But interestingly, his latest goal has him looking at the stage.

“My dream is to be part of one of the productions of 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,'” he says. He finds the combination of storytelling and stagecraft with live magic on stage irresistible.

“Oh, this is what I work for,” he thought when he first saw the show, which won a Tony Award for Best Play. And while special effects in movies can impress, live stage effects are more thrilling.

“It hit me differently,” he says of the “Harry Potter” magic. “It sent shivers down my spine.”

The interest in theater should come as no surprise to Central Florida residents, who remember Pyatt in notable roles at the Orlando Fringe Festival, the Mad Cow Theater, the Garden Theater, Beth Marshall Presents' Play-in-a-Day and the Orlando Family Stage (then the Orlando Repertory Theater), among others.

He has played everything from the tormented and tortured daredevil at the center of A Clockwork Orange to the memory-loving narrator of The Glass Menagerie.

Pyatt has twice been honored in the Orlando Sentinel's annual Critic's Picks, which recognize the best theater work of the year. In 2017, he won best actor in a musical for the Orlando Rep's “Newsies,” in which he was described as “utterly compelling” as the idealistic newsboy Jack. Then in 2019, he won best actor in a comedy for playing both a mild-mannered teenager and the satanic puppet that takes over his life in the Mad Cow Theater's “Hand to God.”

In my review at the time, I wrote that Pyatt “simmers with intensity.”

This doesn't surprise him.

“I was labeled as the 'intense guy,'” he says. “If you needed a young guy who could brood or scream or cry, I was your guy.”

Like many Orlando natives, Pyatt found work in theme parks and attractions. He spent a stint at Capone's Dinner & Show in Kissimmee and played several roles at Universal Orlando, where you may still see him.

Perhaps surprisingly, given his role in “Descendants,” he has never worked at Walt Disney World — although he remembers going there “maybe once a year or every two years, like for my birthday.”

“Disney played a big role in my upbringing,” he says, especially when it came to family movie nights, which ranged from classics like “The Aristocats” to the newer Pixar films.

“We ordered pizza and watched the movies at home,” says Pyatt. “'Wall-E' was a big hit in our house.”

He remembers “Hercules” “as a beautiful memory from his childhood, and now it is relevant again.”

The animated version of his live-action role thrilled him when he first saw it.

“I had never seen a villain like Hades,” he recalls.[Hades voice actor] “James Woods was so cheeky.”

The film also influenced his taste in music, sparking a new interest in gospel and R&B.

“After that film, I was drawn to that kind of music,” he says. “When the Muses started singing 'The Gospel Truth,' it awakened something in me.”

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His journey to “Descendants: The Rise of Red” began in Orlando, first with online video castings from his home and then, after he was cast, with a wig fitting. A stylist came to his home and measured his head and hairline for the distinctive hairpiece.

“I remember the day I wore it for the first time [on set]my co-stars said, 'Oh, he's here. Hades has arrived,'” he recalls. “I thought that was cool.”

Then he laughs.

“I felt bigger.”

The film musical tells the story of Red, the daughter of the Queen of Hearts, who teams up with Cinderella's daughter Chloe. To right a past wrong against the Queen, the two travel back in time where they meet younger versions of Disney villains such as Captain Hook, Maleficent and Pyatt's Hades.

“You'll see the sassy, ​​fiery bad boy that everyone wants Hades to be,” he says of his character.

The cast rehearsed for about a month — “We wanted the dance numbers to be nice and tight,” Pyatt says — and then filmed for about two more months in Georgia.

Although he had lived in New York City and Los Angeles at different times, the irony was not lost on him that his biggest film role to date would come so close to home.

“If someone had told me, 'You're going to get your first big break right after you get back to Orlando,' I would have said, 'No way,'” he says.

He can understand why the “Descendants” films, with their singing and dancing, are not only entertaining but also timeless.

“It's about a lot of family, friendship and love,” he says of the stories. “The films show that even in those you don't understand there is heart and humanity. … They really touch a lot of people. I'm so happy to be part of it.”

Follow me on facebook.com/matthew.j.palm or email me at [email protected]. For more arts news, visit OrlandoSentinel.com/entertainment.