A night in the life, and after-life, of a professional scare actor

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Set us as preferred For most of the year, Lyndon Laveaux is like any other artist in Los Angeles, auditioning for acting gigs, making music and writing projects.He works for Amazon as a delivery driver, which offers him flexibility in his schedule.

But each fall, he transforms into the Captain — the undead host of festivities at the Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor, a haunted attraction held in Long Beach during the Halloween season.“I just love it,” Laveaux says.“It’s like an adult summer camp and I appreciate the fans, I appreciate this community.”In many ways, it’s the actor’s dream — getting paid to perform for packed and responsive crowds.

Laveaux is one of an estimated 400 scare actors employed seasonally at Dark Harbor, run by Thirteenth Floor Entertainment Group, which also produces L.A.’s Haunted Hayride.That popular Griffith Park event hires about 200 performers.

Thirteenth Floor hosts attractions all over the nation, employing more than 4,000 seasonal employees.It’s no secret there’s big business in scaring people: Horror movies are a box office staple, often costing the least to produce and resulting in the biggest profits.According to Forbes, Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights — another spooky season staple — earns more than $575 million annually for the global event, which is estimated to cost around $100 million to stage at theme parks in Florida, California, Japan and Singapore.

The Halloween season is actually referred to as “the thirteenth month” by insiders.And while Thirteenth Floor declined to share financial figures, the city of Long Beach announced in 2024 that it expected to receive more than $1 million in a profit-sharing agreement with the company.Laveaux began life as a scare actor in 2011 at Universal’s Horror Nights.He soon met Star Romano, a fellow scare actor ...