When their Hollywood friends start telling stories about how hard it is to break into the business, Bloomington natives Patrick Casey and Worm Miller change the subject. Otherwise they have to explain how they struck a deal for their first movie, "National Lampoon Presents: Dorm Daze," without even trying.

Patrick and Worm (a family nickname that long ago replaced his given one, Joshua) had dreamed of becoming filmmakers since they met in junior high. While in high school, they made a couple of home movies and worked together on a public-access TV show that featured comic skits. After graduating from college (Miller from the University of Minnesota, Casey from Boston University), they moved to Los Angeles to make it in the big time.

Like countless others with similar aspirations, they ended up working as clerks by day -- Miller in a fast-food restaurant and Casey in a video store -- and writing a script for a horror movie at night. Unlike the others, however, their luck changed dramatically after only seven months.

"One day [producer-director] Scott Hillenbrand came to the video store and rented a whole stack of zombie movies," Casey said. "When he checked out, I said, 'You must be making a horror movie.' And he said, 'You're right.' And I said, 'Well, I just graduated from film school and happen to have a script for a horror movie.' "

Hillenbrand asked him to send the script to the office that he shares with his brother, David. In fact, he told Casey to send them a couple of scripts.

"But we didn't have any others," Casey admitted.

Then they realized: Yes, they did. During one of their college breaks, they had tried to make a movie about a bunch of misfits living in a college dormitory. The project never came off, but they had come up with a script.

"So we sent them that, too," Miller said. "At that point, it was titled 'A College Sex Comedy,' which we think is the only reason they read it."

The Hillenbrands bought the script, and Miller, 25, and Casey, 24, quit their day jobs. They've since written a dark comedy, "Hey, Stop Stabbing Me," that went directly to a DVD release. And they have deals to write two more scripts, including another one for the Hillenbrand bothers.

Small world

Miller and Casey had nothing to do with casting, so it's coincidental that one of the leading roles went to a fellow Minnesotan, Tony Denman, a native of Chanhassen and a veteran of the Children's Theatre Company.

"We'd never met," Denman said. "They came to visit the set one day, and Worm was wearing a Vikings jersey. I introduced myself, and they invited me over to watch the Vikings game."

Although only 23, Denman already is something of a veteran. As a kid, he landed roles in the locally made features "Fargo," "Grumpy Old Men" and "Angus." By the time he was 15, he was flying to Hollywood regularly for brief gigs. He was working full-time before the rest of his high-school class graduated.

"I finished high school six months early and went out to Los Angeles," he said. "I landed a role in the movie 'Go' right away. Filming ended in time for me to fly back home and attend graduation with the rest of my class."

Denman said his show-business career really started in first grade, but no one realized it.

"I was into standup comedy," he said. "I'd go up to the kids and say, 'I'm Tony Denman, and you're not.' Unfortunately, first-graders don't watch 'Saturday Night Live' and had no idea who Chevy Chase was."

For him, the hardest part of "Dorm Daze" was riding a unicycle. That wasn't in the script, but the Hillenbrand brothers thought it would be funny for his character, who is a klutz, to keep falling over -- something Denman did a lot.

"It was very painful," he said. "I'm a method actor."

He has completed work on another movie, a comedy called "After School Special." It certainly is special to him: It's where he met the woman he has since married, British actress Sarah-Jane Potts. In March, they plan to move to England.

"We'll see how it goes," he said when asked how the relocation might affect his work. "There's acting everywhere, of course. Hopefully I can land roles as the zany American."

Jeff Strickler is at jstrickler startribune.com.