L.A. Apartment Complex Caters To Child Actors Chasing Dreams

"Everybody Hates Chris" co-star Vincent Martella, center, and "Heroes" actor Randall Bentley join in a game of volleyball at the Oakwood Toluca Hills apartment complex, which has built a niche as a residence for child actors. (Photos By Kevork Djansezian -- Associated Press)

LOS ANGELES -- From the street, it may look like just another sprawling Los Angeles apartment complex, but to a kid with dreams of stardom, it's the Emerald City at the end of the Yellow Brick Road.

Oakwood Toluca Hills is the place where aspiring child stars arrive by the hundreds every year to take up residence as they pursue fame.

"Everyone in the business, everyone who knows about acting, knows about it," said teen star Devon Werkheiser, who arrived with his mother four years ago with one small film role to his credit.

He left for better digs after landing the starring role in one of the most popular teen shows on television, Nickelodeon's "Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide."

Just one visit to the complex of 1,151 furnished residences carved into of the Hollywood Hills reveals this is no ordinary cluster of three-story, beige-and-tile apartment buildings.

Around the pools, in the clubhouses, at the barbecues, they are everywhere: curly-haired, freckle-faced, good-looking kids.

They are outgoing, friendly and look a lot like the people you see on TV. Sometimes they are. At any given time, 400 to 500 child actors live at Oakwood.

Vincent Martella arrived during TV pilot season five years ago from Florida, hoping to land a role.

"I was doing commercials in Florida, and I came out here because I wanted to do television and movies, and I knew this is where I had to be," he said over Sunday brunch at one of the complex's two clubhouses.

The facilities also double as theaters for karaoke night, classrooms for actors away from home and the setting for the complex's own Academy Awards night.

The cherubic-faced Vincent struck out at auditions that first year but came back the next year and landed a few parts. He finally grabbed the brass ring the third year, winning a co-starring role opposite Tyler James Williams as a young Chris Rock's only friend in the hit TV series "Everybody Hates Chris."

Not everyone who comes to Oakwood becomes a star, though, or even a working actor.