FROM small-town amateur theatrics to number two at one of the world’s most powerful television production companies, former Port Elizabeth schoolboy Gary Carter’s life has been far less ordinary than he would have you believe.

And he has a lot more experience lying ahead, having recently been promoted despite earlier leaving the industry where he became good friends and business associates with the likes of Sir Bob Geldof and media mogul Lord Waheed Alli.

He was also part of the select team which created one of the biggest reality TV shows of all time, Survivor.

Carter, 48, jetted into the city this week to celebrate his father Don’s 82nd birthday.

Dressed in a T-shirt, shorts and trainers, Carter appeared anything but the stuffy pin- striped suit executive one would imagine, despite his powerful and coveted job as TV production house Freemantle Media’s chief operating officer, as well as creative director of the company’s New Media division.

But Carter, who was also on hand to open the new drama department at his alma mater, Alexander Road High School, denied he was cut-throat.

“I don’t plan,” he said. “Planning assumes you have some sort of control over it. I just aim to be happy and for my family to be happy, while trying to be a good person.”

Based in Amsterdam, Carter married his long-time partner, former Capetonian Marius de Vos, four years ago. The couple have adopted a Dutch child, Lucia, 10, whom they are raising with the help of her mother.

Relaxing over breakfast at Humewood’s Windermere Hotel, Carter explained how a mix of luck and good timing saw him elevated to his prestigious position. “After matric at Alex I left to study drama at the University of Cape Town,” Carter said. “But shortly after I graduated I was deported. I was marched onto a plane and flown back to Britain because I refused to become a South African citizen and join the army.

“It was the height of apartheid and didn’t want to shoot black people.”

For an emerging actor in London life was hard. But out of the blue he received a call from his neighbour asking if he would moonlight as a receptionist at a small production company in the West End.

“It was run by Roger Hancock, the brother of well- known British comedian Tony Hancock. I was only meant to be there for two weeks, but I ended up staying for 10 years.”

It was a time when TV was being revolutionised. “I started to represent a company buying the rights to game shows which aired in the US, which laid the grounds to my career.”

Carter moved to work for Geldof and Waheed’s company, Planet 24, which revolutionised live TV with renowned Brit chat and music show, The Word – as well as long-running morning show, The Big Breakfast.

“I was then asked to manage a small production company in LA, which was working on the concept for a reality show called Survivor,” said Carter.

After moving to rival Endemol, he decided to call it a day. But he was soon hooked back.

“I started consulting again and was approached by Freemantle (to work for them), but I said no – at first,” he said. The group is responsible for hit show American Idol, among others.

He finally acquiesced and joined, only to be promoted months later. “I love it. I have friends all around the world.”

He visits Port Elizabeth often to see his parents, who still live in Newton Park.