Evan Gambardella

Evan Gambardella is a bicoastal actor with a BFA from Boston University’s College of Fine Arts, theatre credits at Yale Repertory Theatre and the Huntington, small screen roles including Law & Order: SVU, and a sideline as a professional magician. Like many early-career performers, he found steady work in vertical micro dramas — the minutes-long serials sold by apps such as GoodShort and ReelShort.

“I felt dirty and betrayed”

In September 2025 he starred in “Straight Until He Kissed Me,” a GoodShort “boys’ love” drama about a medical student and a CEO. Scrolling the same app months later, he recognised his own face on the hero of “Mafia King’s Contract Groom,” an AI-generated series he had no part in. He told Business Insider he felt “dirty and betrayed” — grateful to GoodShort for launching his career and proud of a series that queer viewers saw themselves in, but certain he should have been told and paid.

He did not fight it. His contract, he said, had no strong AI protections, and he could not prove the synthetic character was built from him — the practical trap facing every performer in the format. A GoodShort representative told Business Insider the app had acquired “Mafia King’s Contract Groom” from a third-party creator, that it does not support unauthorised use of an actor’s image, voice, or identity, and that it is working with partners on standards that “respect performers, protect creative integrity, and provide audiences with transparency around how AI is used.”

Gambardella took the story to social media instead, and says he has not been booked since — he suspects he has been blacklisted. The uncanny part came back at him from fans, some of whom assumed the doppelgänger was him and that he had been synthetic all along.

He now looks for work with micro drama companies still casting real people. He spoke to Business Insider alongside Ashley BeLoat and Brittany Marsicek, who had each found AI remakes of their own shows on MoboReels.