He never would have auditioned if tryouts had been somewhere other than on his way home to Jersey or some time other than the first day of Christmas break.

He never would have gotten the part had he not contacted Dream-works executive and former Kuumba member Cinque Henderson '94 last spring to discuss his prospects in the music industry.

Still, maybe it was a predestined part of his journey--just a detour that had not been anticipated. He has always wanted to act even though his parents urged him to become a doctor.

"My parents didn't feel like acting was a viable career option. No one in my family was involved in theater, and they thought I needed to get into medicine. Even law was a stretch," recalls Ashong with a smile. "When I was little, though, I wanted to be an actor so bad."

His ability to break the mold doesn't surprise those who know Ashong.

"I'm kind of outside of the mix. I'm a little bit crazier than I should be," he says. "I'm a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-underwear kind of guy." But when he lifts his arms up you see he's wearing Harvard boxers under his baggy jeans. Clearly, the risks he takes are measured ones.

Once he decided he wanted to pursue a career in the arts rather than in the operating room, he went about it diligently. He decided sophomore year that music might be easier for him to break into than film or television, so he began composing for Kuumba and its a capella arm, Brothers. He hooked a keyboard to his computer so he could compose electronically and carried a dictaphone around with him, in case inspiration struck him on the daily trek between the Quad and the Yard.

"He'd always want to show me what he was doing," says Ford. "He'd run to my room to play me a song, or even a chord that he was excited about. Derrick would have a paper due the next day, but instead of working on that, he'd be composing."

He spent a lot of time playing and composing for his singing group, TYRELL--"it's an acronym, but it's a secret what it stands for"--with three of his closest friends, all of whom also wanted to go into music professionally. He worked hard to build up contacts, and once his parents realized he was serious about pursuing music, they retired their dreams of medical school and finally supported his efforts.

"I'm not anal. I'm not one of those unnecessarily organized guys, I'm not obsessive," he says. "Intense but maybe not compulsive, and when I commit to doing something I want to do it well."

His focus can make him tough to be live with. Roommates say Ashong can be high-strung. It also made it difficult for his parents to understand why he would want to make the jump from music to acting last summer after he'd spent so much time composing and playing. In July, when Ashong announced he was thinking about looking for an acting agent, his parents were horrified.

But again, Ashong's shifting interests were deliberate and measured. He had received repeated assurances from Georgetta Banks, an L.A. entertainment insider then at the Kennedy School, that he could really make it as an actor.

"She was like, you, you really need to consider this. At least, don't close the door. So I told her the next time I hear about an audition, I'll go," he shrugged. "So I'm chillin' in my room in December, and I get this e-mail."

His friend Sheldon Reid '97 drove him down to New York for the audition. "I lied to my parents," he says quietly. "They didn't know I was going. I just told them I'd be home from school Saturday night."

"I was really scared. There were all these other actors who were like, 'I'm with SAG [Screen Actors Guild]' and they had these portfolios. I didn't even know what SAG was, and my pictures were these little things my friend took. I was like, 'Wow, I'm dead,'" Ashong remembers. "The only productions I'd ever been in were Black CAST shows at school."

But he's never been one to let a situation faze him, even when Debbie Allen, star of "Fame" and director of "A Different World," was sitting in the audience.