Rio Rancho Native Cody Tavella Makes Acting Debut in Streaming True-Crime Drama

Cody Tavella spent his high school years running track and helping lead the Cleveland High School Storm to a state football championship. Now, nearly a decade after graduating from CHS in 2017, the 26-year-old Rio Rancho native is stepping in front of a camera in the starring role of a true-crime streaming series.

Tavella will play Shawn "Bone" Martin in "I Am Bone," which premieres on Tubi on March 28. The series centers on a Santa Monica man who was a victim in a high-profile sexual abuse case involving a police officer and follows how Martin worked to turn his life around after leaving gang life behind.

"If you enjoy a film that you can sit down and cry, but also enjoy action, this is a film that has both," Tavella said in an interview from his San Fernando Valley home. "It goes into the underside of L.A. and how 'Bone' was able to change his life for the better after realizing that he needed to get out of the gang."

The premiere marks Tavella's television acting debut. His uncle Frank Powers and Martin himself both served as executive producers on the project. Tavella recently attended a star-studded showing of the film in Beverly Hills alongside both men.

Tavella played the Storm's 2015 state championship season as a student-athlete before graduating two years later. He has since relocated to the San Fernando Valley, where he has been working as an occasional actor while building toward a debut of this scale.

"I Am Bone" streams on Tubi beginning March 28.