Sci-fi fans should recognize Alex Zahara from his versatility across more than 150 television and film projects over the years, ranging from Jeremiah to Stargate SG-1 to Supernatural to Fringe and everything in between. More recently, he appeared in the film Final Destination: Bloodlines and plays the role of Principal Hartman in the supernatural series School Spirits.

Recently Zahara was kind enough to appear on SciFi Vision’s livestream spotlight series to speak not only about his role on School Spirits and the end of the season, but also about his prolific acting career and what’s next for him.

While crafting Hartman, the actor pulled from both the script as well as real-life school principals he had, as opposed to other principals on the screen. “I'm basing him on the script, what I believe his needs and wants and goals are, plus a little amalgamation of real people that I know,” the actor told SciFi Vision, likening it to a cocktail. “As actors, we're sponges. We absorb everything from everywhere.”

Zahara connected early on to the material and thought the concept was appealing because of his own beliefs in the supernatural. “I believe in ghosts; I believe in spirits, and that's why it's been a pleasure working on this, because I do think there's stuff out there,” explained the actor. In fact, he even offered up a real experience he had as a child, a visitation he believed was from his great aunt, and he knows he’s not the only one. “I'm not alone. There are a lot of people who have had ghostly, or I would say energetic encounters, and that's for real…There's no denying that there's something beyond our mortal coil, for sure.”

The actor was also really impressed with all the writing on the series. “I just thought the scripts are great,” he told SciFi Vision. “All the scripts are really good. That's the thing, there’ve been no stinkers. There've been no weak scripts.”

One of the highlights for both viewers and the actor for School Spirits was his scenes with Jennifer Tilly who plays superintendent Dr. Deborah Hunter-Price, about whom he said he couldn’t say enough good things. “She's a ball of joy,” said Zahara. "I love working with her. She was always wanting to rehearse and, you know, play with it and explore and find stuff out, and just personally is so nice…and just so wonderful to work with.”

He also commented on her commitment that he thought was amazing and how they would work together on scenes. “They really let us play a lot together and sort of work out our own little things,” he told the site. “She'd have little ideas, and I had little ideas, and they would all sort of weave together.”

The actor went on to praise the younger cast as well. “Everybody's wonderful,” said Zahara. “I can't emphasize it enough, but going to work is a complete pleasure…I'll put it this way, if this is the last show I ever do in my career, I'd be super happy.”

Besides School Spirits, the actor also recently appeared in Final Destination: Bloodlines, which he really enjoyed, because they got to rehearse for the film, which usually doesn’t happen. The writers were often on set, and the performers would improvise, and they would go off to write and come back with new sides for them. “It really was what filmmaking is supposed to be about, a collaborative effort, and everybody brought ideas and shared things,” said Zahara.

People may recognize him from many different projects, but the actor lists Man in the High Castle as one that comes up a lot; however, he is most proud of the episode of The Outer Limits he did called “Tribunal,” which was based on a true story, and he plays the real-life commandant of Auschwitz. Although there is a significant time travel aspect, that’s not what it’s really about. “Parts of it are very heavy, but it's the piece of work I'm the most proud of,” he explained, “because it keeps the memory of the Holocaust alive, and so hopefully people learn from it and don’t repeat the mistakes of the past.”

Zahara also talked about some of the projects he’d love to work on in the future, such as a stage play of It’s a Wonderful Life, but mostly, he wants to work with “good people that are dedicated and do good scripts and care about it.”

He continued on to talk about a project he has coming up that he will be filming called Follow the Path. “I'm really looking forward to that, because it's a passion project,” said the actor. “It's a low budget thing we're doing…[But] we're doing it because the script is so appealing.” Zahara added that the sci-fi project was also exciting to him because the writer, Brayden DeMorest-Purdy, who he’s worked with before, wrote the part with him in mind. “That’s the biggest compliment you can give to someone, saying [they] wrote this with you in mind, so of course, I accepted, because I know he's good.” Zahara added that regardless, looking at the material, he thought it was one of the best written things he’d ever seen.

During the extensive interview, Zahara also spoke about how he approaches auditions, teaching acting to others, working with makeup effects, and much more.

Watch the full spotlight interview below.