Ryan Merriman believes destiny had a hand in his becoming an actor.

"I was just one of those weird kids who always wanted to be an actor. I started doing local commercials in Oklahoma when I was a child and did school and community theatre," says Merriman from his home in Choctaw, Okla.

"Call it fate but I ended up being in some right places at the right times."

Merriman, 22, went to an acting seminar in Texas when he was 12, where he got a manager who took him to L.A. the same year for pilot season. He was snapped up immediately to play Blake Kellogg for two seasons on The Mommies.

He was the young Jarod on The Pretender and in 1992 played Michelle Pfeiffer's son in The Deep End of the Ocean.

In the slasher flick Final Destination 3, Merriman plays Kevin Fisher, the high school jock who literally finds himself duelling with Death.

With a $20-million US opening weekend, it proved there's still a great deal of life in this franchise.

"I wasn't a fan of slasher or horror movies growing up but I've gone on to do my share of them as an actor," says Merriman, who starred in Halloween: Resurrection and The Ring Two.

"I was excited to get the offer for Final Destination 3 because I am a fan of these films.

"I like that it's not some guy in a mask with a knife running around killing people. These are actual events that take the lives of the characters in the Final Destination movies.

"They're really scary death scenes."

When Merriman is not on location filming a movie or attending auditions in Los Angeles, he's back home in Choctaw with wife Micol. The couple were married in June 2004.

"I come from a real tight-knit family. I'm a family man at heart," the young actor says.

"I'm just lucky to have the love of my life in Choctaw plus a career I've always dreamed of."