Manifest: Who Plays Older Cal?
After a long and bumpy ride, "Manifest" finally came in for a landing earlier this month, ending the saga of Flight 828 and its ill-fated passengers. In Season 1, we are introduced to Cal (Jack Messina), the son of protagonist Ben Stone (Josh Dallas), as a cancer-stricken 12-year-old. But in the Season 3 finale, Cal leaps forward five years and remains ahead of the show's timeline until he sacrifices himself in the dramatic "Manifest" series finale. 17-year-old Cal is played by Ty Doran, who had just a handful of television appearances to his name before landing his role on "Manifest."
Doran's first job in Hollywood was a voiceover role, as Yuma in the English version of the "Eternal Quon" series. His first on-screen appearance came in 2016 as Peter Tanner in eight episodes of "American Crime." In 2018, Doran starred as Bryce in the Hulu teen drama "All Night," about a group of high school students at an all-night lock-in graduation party. That year, he also made guest appearances on "Bull" and "Queen Sugar."
Ty Doran started to appear on higher-profile shows in 2019
In 2019, Ty Doran appeared on "Chicago Fire" as Jacob, a high school hockey player involved in a bus accident on a rural Indiana road. Later that year, he also appeared on an episode of "The Blacklist."
Doran looked set to land his big break in 2021 when he was cast as the 17-year-old Cal on "Manifest." However, the show was canceled by NBC after his character had made just one appearance on the show. Luckily, the series was picked up by Netflix shortly afterward.
Despite having limited experience in the industry, Doran took the hot-and-cold treatment from the networks in stride, accepting it as just part of the business. "As an actor working in the entertainment industry, you build up sort of a thick skin," he told People. "There's a lot of rugs that get pulled out from under you at various times and you just make the best of a situation."
While he is now chasing his Hollywood dream Doran has long been dedicated to the craft. Doran has been acting since he was 8 years old and earned a theater degree from Northwestern University in 2020. Doran credits his father, a theater director, for guiding him into acting, although he admitted that working with a parent is not always easy. "When you're a kid, trying to take constructive criticism from your father is difficult," Doran said. "I was such a little angsty little tween that getting that from him was really hard and it forced us to have very honest conversations."