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Here's Why You Recognize Scare Tactics' Baron Vaughn: Vampire Collector & More
Actor Baron Vaughn has made a career making people laugh, making people think, and making people afraid.
USA Network is amping up your Halloween celebrations with a brand-new season of Scare Tactics, a hidden camera show from Jordan Peele that puts unsuspecting people in the middle of horrifying situations. Luckily for those adrenaline-soaked victims, the horror is fictional, courtesy of Hollywood horror special effects and a collection of committed actors.
RELATED: Scare Tactics' "Cursed Collection" Prankster Got Freaked Out By Her Own Setup
These sorts of shows rely on finding the right talent to populate your spooky scenario. They need to have the experience and chops to pull off the prank without the victim realizing they’re inside a fiction too early. They need to be good, but they can’t be too recognizable. That’s where character actors like Baron Vaughn come in.
You can see Vaughn in two episodes (so far) of Scare Tactics — streaming right now on Peacock — first as a chef with a questionable menu in the season pilot and as a vampire with a penchant for weird collectibles in the third episode. Fortunately, none of the show’s targets recognize Vaughn during their encounters, but you might recognize him from his dozens of TV and movie credits.
Who is Baron Vaughn in USA Network's Scare Tactics?
Each episode of Scare Tactics offers a few different pranks filled with a rotating cast of characters. The pilot’s second segment features Erving (the target) and his best friend as they arrive for a fancy dinner. As they enter, the restaurant host gathers their phones, a precautionary security measure to ensure no information about the dinner gets out.
The first course is a piece of prepared puffin, a small flightless bird that is vulnerable in some parts of the world. One of the guests takes a sneaky picture with a hidden phone and is removed. The second course is an interpretation of surf and turf, a mixture of horse and dolphin that hints at the chef’s willingness to skirt legal and ethical boundaries.
The chef (Vaughn) then arrives to introduce the final course: a small piece of locally sourced long pig, a common term for a cooked human being served as food.
RELATED: Scare Tactics' Vampire Prankster Could Hear Her Friend's Screams "From 3 States Away"
Vaughn returns in the third episode for the final segment, following pranks involving a deadly house rental and mutated zombie pigs.
Megan (the victim) claims to have never been scared, so her friend sets her up with the fright of her life. The two of them arrive at an estate sale, don special robes, sign an NDA, and start looking around. But the bizarre collection of items — including a desiccated corpse and a still-beating human heart — are only the tip of the eerie iceberg. Things get even weirder when the owner of the estate starts inviting people to a secluded back room to see his private collection, never to return.
Baron Vaughn’s Career: Where You’ve Seen Him
When Vaughn isn’t busy starring in your nightmares, he’s stacking up a growing list of screen credits in some of your favorite movies and TV shows.
He played Nwabudike "Bud" Bergstein, the adoptive child of Frankie and her ex-husband Sol in 97 episodes of Grace and Frankie, Leonardo Prince on 23 episodes of USA Network’s Fairly Legal, Jimmy in Black Dynamite, and wisecracking robot Tom Servo in the 2017 continuation of Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Vaughn also appeared in six episodes of NBC’s Superstore as Ken, an employee at the fictional supermarket Cloud 9. Ken makes his first appearance as a security guard on the day the store gets robbed, which could have been avoided if he'd arrived on time for his shift. Glenn, the store’s manager, tries to fire him but his aversion to confrontation leaves Ken believing he’s transferring from security to sales.
To learn more about Superstore, click here.
Trading in his acting chops for a hosting hat, Vaughn served as the MC for all 8 episodes of SYFY’s The Great Debate, which saw a rotating cast of celebrity nerds arguing over the answers to sci-fi and fantasy’s biggest questions.
Catch Baron Vaughn and the rest of the chilling cast in Scare Tactics when new episodes premiere every Friday night at 10 p.m. ET on USA Network. Episodes are also available to stream on Peacock.
