Looking for a new series obsession? Check out Amazon Prime Video’s new latest series called The Runarounds that premiered September 1, 2025. The series follows a young indie group of five talented Wilmington high school students from North Carolina that come together during their graduation with their shared passion of music and their strive to pursue stardom and musical fame to form a rock band; navigating and facing music industry obstacles, band rivalries, complicated romances and personal life struggles. But did you know you The Runarounds is in fact a actual band based on a true story? Let’s talk about it;
From 5,000 Submissions to Screen
In 2020, Jonas Pate the co-creator, writer, and director of Netflix’s popular series the “Outer Banks” and now director of The Runarounds posted a casting call on social media looking for young musicians to form a band that could play live and act in their new series. This led to 5,000 submissions of musicians and actors from all over the world to which we got a our five finalist group members Axel Ellis, William Lipton and Jermey Yun our singers and guitarist and our drummer Zende Murdock and Jesse Golliher our bassist.
After casting The Runarounds was brought to Charleston North Carolina where Outer Bank was shot to rehearse music and songs by other famous artists and bands such as Coldplay and the Beatles. In 2022, they shot their first pilot in Wilmington North Carolina. While some of the members like Yun and Lipton grew up together the rest of the band got to meet each other and become close bandmates.
The Runarounds soon enough began learning how to play as a band and started writing songs taking inspiration from bands like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and R&B artists appearing in the new Amazon Prime Video series with full versions coming out on soundtrack.
The Band That Acted Its Way to a Deal
The success of the series really highlights the success of the band. They went from being having a already existing musician background to auditioning for a series to being casted to play a band on a tv show and became successful; being signed and earning a record deal to starting a touring career. Essentially, they achieved stardom and musical fame through a unconventional method of acting which is brilliant.
Filming the Music: Why Live Sound Was Everything
A big part of The Runarounds promotion as a band and series is due to their unique marketing strategy of allowing the audience to become apart of this experience and their personal journey as a band allowing them to connect with the actors and musicians up close creating more longevity for the brand.
Don’t miss out on these brilliant musicians, their series and their music. Follow them on their rise to success. I’m excited to see them and their series take off. Check out The Runarounds on Amazon Prime video and catch them on their next tour kicking off January 15th 2026.