MOULTRIE — MOULTRIE — A long-time love of performing combined with a new friendship to land a Moultrie native a movie career that is starting to take   off.

After three years of a capella musicals at Colquitt County High School — culminating in the lead role in “Fiddler on the Roof” — Steven Hayek graduated in 1989 and headed to Florida State to study musical  theater. But that didn’t work out the way he hoped.

“The school version of learning acting didn’t appeal to me as much [as performing had],” he  said.

Disillusioned, he changed majors. Then again, and again, totaling four majors with no degree. At the end, he was majoring in computer science.

“Eventually I needed to finish school,” he said. “That [computer science] wasn’t what interested me. What interested me was getting out of school.”

He transferred to Appalachian State University because his family had a house in Boone, N.C., where the college is located. Nearby Wilmington, N.C., has earned the nickname “Hollywood East” because of the number of movies that are filmed there, and Hayek got involved in the movie scene after graduation.

“The one thing I’d truly forgotten was how much I really loved the art of acting,” he said.

His computer science degree came in handy, allowing him to do graphic design work to pay the bills while acting in independent films and fronting a band named Feel Love Fury.

Everything came together when Feel Love Fury was hired to do the soundtrack for a movie by director John Ward, being filmed in Wilmington. Hayek and Ward struck up a friendship.

After Ward returned to California, Hayek realized he wasn’t getting the big roles in movies by staying in Wilmington. Successful movie careers were made in New York and Los Angeles, not North Carolina. Six and a half years ago, he made the move to LA.

Along the way he made a name change, too, taking on the stage name Stefan Hajek.

“We actually ran across the birth certificate of my grandfather,” he recalled. “He changed the [surname] to a more American spelling, and I wanted to change it back.”

His new first name was a legacy of Appalachian State, where he hung out with a group of German exchange students who mispronounced his given name, but he liked it.

After arriving in Los Angeles, Hajek reconnected with Ward, one of several directors who found roles for him. Ward specializes in faith-based films, most of which are released directly to DVD.

Hajek was working with Ward on “Liquid,” a multi-part look at the Ten Commandments. The idea was to do a short story depicting each commandment, package five of the films as “Liquid 1,” and the other five as “Liquid 2.” But “Liquid” sort of overflowed as Ward saw ways to tie the short stories into one cohesive whole.

Thus was born “I Am,” a feature-length film due for release this fall.

“Once, they called it the City of Angels. Over time, it has become the City of Lost Souls,” the movie’s website says. “Ten strangers entangle themselves in the spider web that is life in Los Angeles today. Unknowingly, they are living out the Ten Commandments one by one.

“As they struggle to solve their problems themselves, things only get worse — their problems multiply, and spill over into the lives of so many others. Yet there is one presence that never leaves. One lone voice of love, reason, and compassion in the midst of lives on fire: the great I AM, God Himself. It’s the ultimate love story that changes everything.”

The movie stars an    ensemble cast. Hajek  takes on the sixth         commandment as he     portrays Detective Jake Russell, whose vendetta   to kill the man who     killed his wife consumes him to the edge of madness.

Hajek also serves as project manager.

The movie, which has earned the nickname “the Christian ‘Crash,’” will be released to DVD in November, but churches can sign up now for early showings.

“The churches will all be able to see it before it’s released to the public,” Hajek said.

The first 1,000 churches to sign up for the early showing will get use of the movie for free. When Hajek spoke with The Observer last week, 800 had already signed up. More details are available at the movie’s website, www.iamthemovie.com.

Up next for Hajek is “Dresden Sun,” a dramatic thriller in which he stars and serves as producer of visual design. Production begins in October.