A former State College Area High School student is making his second appearance in a major film -- this one about making an adult movie -- and his parents couldn't be prouder.

Josh Leonard, who previously performed as himself in The Blair Witch Project, stars in the new movie Humpday.

"With Blair Witch he really got the right to be in front of the camera," Joann Leonard, Josh's mother, said.

After The Blair Witch Project, Josh made numerous appearances in various television shows. He is currently working on various film projects.

Humpday is distributed by Magnolia Pictures and is currently showing in such major cities as New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.

Joann said that the film goes beyond what the synopsis might read.

"It's a hard film to describe," Joann said. "It really shed a lot of light on a lot of things."

She described the overall message of the movie as "being true to yourself, being true to your friendships."

The moral of the movie might be a fitting one for Josh. Throughout his schooling, Josh felt that his personal philosophies did not fit at State College Area High School. He attended ninth grade there before choosing to pursue other options.

"Let's just say that he and the public school system were not terribly compatible," Robert said.

Josh made a deal with his parents that if he were able to pass the tests required to attain a GED after his first two years of high school, they would allow him to spend his last two years doing what he called "experiential learning."

Josh said that his approach to school has a different motive than others do. He aims to "experience life empirically and not because somebody else said it was so."

Josh said that this philosophy contributed to his dislike of high school.

"I didn't find a tremendous amount of support in the public school system for an independent person that was outside of the norm," he said.

Even after his secondary education, Josh's philosophy played a role in his college plans.

"He had a very unique education path in life," Robert said. "He wasn't after a degree. He was after courses he wanted to take from particular people."

Josh offered a different explanation.

"I think I was just stubborn and I wanted to learn what I wanted to learn," he said. "I've always been more interested in learning than appeasing the system."

Both of Josh's parents are involved in performing. His father is a retired professor of the Penn State MFA Directing Program, and his mother ran MetaStages, a children's theatre outreach program at Penn State.

From a young age, Josh was exposed to theatre through performing in the plays his father directed.

"It was a great time for me to spend some one-on-one time with him and stay up past my bed time," Josh said.

Directing has always been a passion of Josh's, Joann said.

"That's where his heart and his passion is," she said.