A SOUTHEND actor has hit the big screen at a film festival in Los Angeles.

Daniel Kewn, 25, from Southchurch, plays the villain in the short film U Never Listen.

The film, written and produced by Nina Romain, 46, from London, was first screened at the Southend Horror-on-Sea film festival in January this year.

Daniel is delighted to hear the film will now be shown at the Hollywood Dead Film Festival, which is in its second year of celebrating small horror films.

He said: “After presenting U Never Listen in my hometown in January, it’s cool to hear it’s getting screened in the Hollywood Dead Film Festival, where some of it was filmed.

“The other short I starred in, Faith, was screened at the Los Angeles Film Awards and won Best Inspirational Film award last year.”

Southend’s Horror-on-Sea festival director Paul Cotgrove is also chuffed that a local actor is getting recognition at such a prestigious event and has high hopes it might win a prize.

He said: “It’s great that one of our homegrown actors has gone from our screening to one in Los Angeles, and hopefully everyone enjoys it there as much as we did.”

As well as being delighted her film has been chosen, Ms Romain hopes the film may be a springboard for the Southend actor’s career.

She said: “I never thought the film would end up being screened in LA, I’m absolutely delighted. It only had a budget of about £600 and I honestly never thought it would ever get screened anywhere!

“So it’s going to be a real buzz to show it to the horrorhounds in LA.

“I’m so proud of Daniel, he was an amazing bad guy!

“He wasn’t just playing a bad guy he put a really lovely touch on it, a lovely touch of humour to the character.

“He made him really funny and horrible and awful.

“You just can’t wait to see him get his just deserts.

“I really help it will help him with his career.

“He is going to do great things.”

She also explained how the inspiration for the four-minute short came when she was staying in a dorm in a hostel on Venice Beach, California, and walking by the sea.

She said: “I was just walking along filming on my smartphone to show everyone back in London how nice it was with everyone swimming and skating and just enjoying the hot weather sun.

“Suddenly I thought, what would happen if we were all in a horror movie and this sunny beach scene was being seen through the eyes of a psychopath plotting evil?”

To find out more about the film or the actors, visit imdb.com