Comings And Goings: Young and Restless Alum Michael Roark Debuts As Days of Our Lives’s Jeremy
Soap Opera Digest confirmed back in June that Days of Our Lives had tapped Michael Roark — who Young and Restless fans will likely remember from his 2016 run as Travis Crawford, a suitor of Victoria Newman’s who ultimately left town after she dumped him — to join the cast. Now it’s time for him to make his debut, which will take place on Friday, October 3. And the role he’ll be playing is a familiar one to longtime DAYS watchers.
Second Helping
Roark is taking on the part of Jeremy Horton, Stephanie Johnson’s one-time beau, who is the son of Mike Horton (Jennifer’s brother, last seen in 2022, whose portrayer, Roark Critchlow, is slated to pop in later this year) and Robin Jacobs. Jeremy was last seen in Salem back in 2007 and was played at that time by Trevor Donovan. His return was hinted at on screen when Julie Williams mentioned Jeremy’s impending visit to Stephanie, who wasn’t exactly doing cartwheels at the prospect of seeing her ex again.
Since leaving Y&R, Roark — who is a licensed attorney and practices entertainment law when he’s not in front of the camera — has kept busy with a wide away of projects, including the title role in the 2019 flick Bennett’s War, the streaming series Driven, in which he co-starred with DAYS alum Casey Jon Deidrick (ex-Chad); the Lifetime movie Suitcase Killer: The Melanie McGuire Story; the Amazon original Something From Tiffany‘s; and Passionflix’s The Black Dagger Brotherhood.
Reflecting on his previous stint in daytime, Roark told Digest in 2022 that appearing on Y&R “was a lot of fun. I loved it. When you work on a soap it’s kind of like stepping into another world that feels like this strange cross between TV, stage and improv, and I really enjoyed it. I loved the cast and crew over there, and I enjoyed playing Travis.” He also sang the praises of his leading lady, Amelia Heinle (Victoria), saying, “She was great. We had a lot of fun together. We kind of hit it off right from the screen test and we really just rode that through. She was always very supportive and I think it showed on screen how much we enjoyed working together.”
His time on the show was ultimately cut short due to some behind-the-scenes factors. Roark shared, “There was a whole road we were going to take with the character, and there was an interest on both sides for me to stay, but we just hit a stalemate with contract talks. I think it was a timing issue, more than anything. There was never any bad blood. I enjoyed it and I was willing to stay in the right circumstances. I think they felt the same but you know, it’s just what happens sometimes in this business. It was unfortunate but it was still a good run and I was always open to returning — and I still am, under the right circumstances.”
The actor appreciated the opportunity to dip his toe into the daytime world, noting, “When I first started, I remember getting texts from some people I trust saying that soaps are like an actor’s boot camp. What I now know, you really have to fall back and trust yourself. There are all these different opinions on soaps, but the reality is, it’s very challenging and it’s not for everybody. At that point of my career, I had touched every medium other than stand-up; I’ve done film, prime-time TV and stage, and with most, there are tons of rehearsals, tons of takes, and it’s almost like a safety blanket for some performers. ‘Oh, we’ll get it on the next take or the one after that.’ Well, it doesn’t work like that in the soap world. You have two takes to get it right because there are always a lot of pages to cover. I actually embraced that and thought it was a cool aspect of the job.”
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