Ross Marquand was a broke fan watching The Walking Dead

At a crossroads in his life, comedian Ross Marquand got one of the biggest breaks of his career: a role on AMC’s hit zombie survival show The Walking Dead.

Sometimes, it’s easy to forget about the people behind the roles on our favorite television shows. The actors on the tv screen aren’t always making enough money to get by and are jumping from job to job just to make ends meet. That was the situation facing comedian Ross Marquand.

Aside from a couple of guest gigs on shows like Dog With A Blog and Mad Men, things weren’t good for Marquand before he got a role on The Walking Dead. His situation went from ‘barely getting by’ to ‘falling behind’ as his financial situation. And sadly, there is a point where you have to cut you losses and find something that works.

In a recent interview on Out.com, Ross Marquand told the story of how close he got to giving up on his dream:

"“Going from being a broke fan watching on my couch to actually being on it—there’s nothing better than that,” Marquand said. “I couldn’t pay bills a year and a half ago. I said, ‘I don’t know if this is going to work out for me.’ Then, luckily, I got the biggest break of my life.”"

And while landing the gig on The Walking Dead helped Marquand branch out and have a bigger audience, there was also the negative part of his role. Becoming Aaron meant that he would be an openly gay character and share a tender scene with actor Jordan Woods-Robinson.

Episode 11 of The Walking Dead’s fifth season titled “The Distance” featured a kiss between the two men that sent social media into a tizzy. While Ross Marquand got many messages of support, there were a lot of people who were upset about seeing it and were very negatively vocal about it.

"“It’s a tender moment between two men in love, and for some reason that set people off. To say it bothered me is an understatement. These same fans are now like, ‘You seem cool now, like one of the guys,’” Marquand says. “Maybe it seems silly, but for me that’s progress. People see Aaron as someone they can relate to. That’s kind of a win.”"

That controversy on The Walking Dead might have been frustrating, but it helped Ross Marquand get his name out there. Now, he’s been doing impressions on websites like Variety and even being asked to take part in pregame shows for NFL on Fox.

For a guy that was so close to throwing in the towel on acting and comedy, things have seemed to come together pretty well for Ross Marquand, who you can catch when The Walking Dead returns from its season 6 midseason break on February 14, 2016.