Editors' Note: The following article features Dartanian Sloan (Alpha Delta/Purdue 2025).
Ten years after chilling audiences in Sinister 2, Dartanian Sloan isn’t living his life under a microscope anymore; he’s looking through one. A former child actor who once bounced from school to Los Angeles auditions now works in pharmaceutical manufacturing in West Lafayette, IN. In this Q&A, Sloan talks candidly about his Theta Chi experience, what a horror set really feels like, and how engineering, not acting, was always the plan.
Q: What about Greek life seemed appealing to you when you first got to campus?
A: I was really unsure about joining Greek life when I left for school because I think I had only ever heard the negative side of it. When I got onto campus, however, I realized that I had a lot in common with the folks at Purdue and that there were a lot more benefits to it than I once thought.
Q: What attracted you to the Theta Chi’s at Purdue?
A: I got introduced to Theta Chi by one of the first friends I made at Purdue, Ben Kromkowski (2025). He asked me to come with him to one of the rush events, and I really liked the people I met. I actually never considered rushing another house because I was immediately struck by how close everyone seemed.
Q: Do you have a favorite Theta Chi memory?
A: It's hard to nail down a specific memory, but my time living in the house was great. It was kind of like living in an apartment building with all of your closest friends, being able to bounce from room to room, hanging out, and talking with everyone. If I had to pick a favorite memory, it would probably be our Sunday morning "tradition" where one of our brothers from Argentina would grill, and we would recount what had happened over the weekend while eating really good food.
Q: Tell us about your early steps into acting. When did that start, and what was that experience like as a child actor?
A: I have been going to auditions for as long as I can remember. Most of the experience I had in the industry was while I was really young, so it was a little weird balancing being a kid but also working an adult job. I have a lot of memories where I would get out of school around 2 or 3 pm, then my mom would immediately drive my siblings and me to Los Angeles, where we would spend most of the day going to auditions. It was always weird, too, because I would have to do my homework in the car on the way home from the west side.
Q: How’d you get the part of Zach from Sinister 2? And what was it like being on a major movie set?
A: My brother and I went on several auditions for Sinister 2 because they were looking for a set of twins. It was kind of funny because they didn't decide which characters we would play (the evil one or the good one) until the very last audition for it, so we ended up rehearsing both parts. I really enjoyed working on a movie set, especially as a young child. It was a good experience in my opinion, because it forced you to become comfortable speaking with adults. I also enjoyed the travel aspect, particularly the 3-month stint where I lived in downtown Chicago to film Sinister 2. The movie sets are actually pretty similar to how they're depicted in the movies in the sense that it's a bustling community where everyone plays a part in making the final product.
Q: Sinister 2 looked like a departure from the previous movies you had been in. How was your role different from previous ones?
A: It was definitely a departure in that I hadn't really played a character that was integral to the plot of the movie. In other projects I had worked on, I was usually a supporting character with few lines to memorize. In Sinister, however, I think I played a bigger role that required more "acting". Child acting is weird because kids aren't always expected to play their heart out, because a lot of the time, they're too young to understand what is going on within the film. I think Sinister was a change in that, as I was fully aware of what was expected of me.
Q: The first Sinister was also very dark. At that age, did you watch the first film? Were you allowed to?
A: My parents were always really strict about watching movies; I couldn't watch PG-13 until I was 13, etc. We were given two movies to watch as "homework" prior to coming onto set: The Sixth Sense and Where the Wild Things Are. To be completely honest, I have never been interested in watching horror movies, so I still haven't watched the first Sinister. Growing up, though, my family would put on a Haunted House every year for charity, so I was somewhat used to working "behind the scenes" on a scary production.
Q: How was this movie pitched to you if you hadn't seen the first film?
A: When I got the script originally, I was just told that they were looking for a set of twins to play in a horror movie. The audition setting is odd because you're only given a portion of the script to go off of. You receive some direction within the audition itself, but when I was preparing for it, I still didn't know whether I was going to play Zach or Dylan. That led me to seeing one of them as the evil twin and the other as the good twin (I totally wanted to play the good twin, but was told to play Zach instead). I think going into it, I knew it was going to be a horror film, as I had heard about the first Sinister and had it explained to me, but I didn't have much direction beyond that.
Q: Sinister 2 was produced by Jason Blum (Blumhouse) and featured James Ransone, two names synonymous with modern horror. Did you get to work with them? What was that like?
A: I didn't work much with Jason Blum; however, I did audition for other Blumhouse projects after the fact. It's a pretty cool community, especially getting introduced to it so young. We were invited to Halloween parties after filming, which were always a lot of fun. I didn't know much about James Ransone prior to filming, but my mom had really liked him in Generation Kill. He was very nice, and he absolutely helped me with a scene that required lots of emotion, but other than that, I don't have any explicit memories of working with him.
Q: Have any stories you can share of other stars you may have met or worked with?
A: I have also worked with Blake Lively and Chloe Moretz in a movie called "Hick". I don't have a ton of memories from filming that, but I do remember really liking the part because I played a mute character, which meant I didn't have any lines. That might seem weird to hear from someone who acted, but being younger, I lamented memorizing lines because it felt like additional work on top of my schoolwork.
Q: When you filmed those scary scenes as a child, did the set itself feel frightening—or did the movie only become terrifying in the edit?
A: It's hard to picture, but while filming, you're surrounded by so many people that it's very easy to forget you're filming a horror movie. It was also ironic to me because I met Bughuul, the villain, when he wasn't wearing any makeup, so that helped to get over any fear that I might have had while filming. A lot of the special effects for makeup were also performed once, then the rest was completed as an after effect with CGI.
Q: Was there any major catalyst that led you to pivot from acting to chemical engineering?
A: I had never considered acting as a career, more as an extracurricular activity, so school was always big in my family. As long as I can remember, I have wanted to be an engineer; the struggle was more around what type. I excelled in chemistry in high school, which eventually led me to pick my major.
Q: What’s the plan now that you’ve graduated?
A: Currently, I'm living and working in West Lafayette, IN, right next to Purdue. I'm enjoying my career at Evonik so far and intend to continue pursuing work in the pharmaceutical space, though I'm not sure how long I'll be in Indiana. Family is a big priority for me, so I'd like to be as close to them as possible.
Today, Sloan is building his career in pharmaceutical manufacturing in West Lafayette. He credits Purdue, Theta Chi, and steady mentorship for helping him focus on engineering and follow-through. Acting was part of his past; engineering is his path forward. That feels like a fitting curtain call for Halloween week—and a sharp reminder that our stories don’t end at the credits.