Jeremy Yun ’25 Starred in a Prime Video Show About His Indie Rock Band

Most Princeton seniors scramble to finish their theses from a Firestone cubicle, over a Small World latte, or beneath the vaulted stained glass ceiling of Chancellor Green. Jeremy Yun ’25 pressed “submit” on his from the back of a tour van, battling a poor internet connection in the Appalachian Mountains.

The effusive Princeton golf co-captain and economics major is also lead guitarist of The Runarounds, an indie rock band that rose to fame through the Amazon Prime series of the same name, which follows a group of recent high school graduates in North Carolina pursuing dreams of musical stardom. The band assembled in 2020, when Outer Banks co-creator Jonas Pate ’92 put out a casting call seeking musicians for an episode of the show. Pate was so wowed by the musicians that he created a new series, The Runarounds, and the pilot was filmed in 2022, when Yun was a sophomore at Princeton. 

After recording an EP in 2023, The Runarounds began their Minivan Tour in September 2025, when the eponymous series premiered. The band members wrote all of their own songs for the project and have played 65 shows on this tour to date. 

The Runarounds was Yun’s first foray into acting. His character Topher, a Princeton-bound golfer, shares some notable similarities with the actor, a creative choice designed to ease his acting debut. “I love being a team player, and that attitude is built into Topher,” says Yun, although he was quick to note that unlike his on-screen counterpart, he’s never run away from home.

Yun’s passion for music has always been grounded in his love of community. He picked up guitar at age 5, after watching his dad play Tom Petty songs at a campfire. “It was captivating,” recalled Yun, describing the realization that “this is what music is, it’s meant to be shared with others.” The kindergartener started teaching himself guitar covers on YouTube, and a few months later, he joined the School of Rock, an after-school music program, in his hometown of San Mateo. There, he met his “built-in brother” and on-screen and real-life bandmate, William Lipton.

As a full-time student and performer, Yun juggled an exceptionally busy schedule, even by Princeton standards. While filming the pilot for The Runarounds, Yun would sometimes wrap shooting in Wilmington, North Carolina at 5 a.m., hop on a flight at 7 a.m., and slide into a McCosh desk for class at 10:30 a.m. Last fall, Yun flew back and forth between campus and tour, crisscrossing the country to play shows from Massachusetts to Mississippi.

But Yun’s prodigious talent (and time management skills) doesn’t mean the road to fame has been easy. He and bandmate Axel Ellis finished writing Yun’s favorite Runarounds song “Downtown,” a poignant surf-rock anthem, only 30 minutes before they were set to film the track. “This was turning in your P-set at 11:30 when it’s due at midnight,” Yun quipped.

For Yun, music remains inextricable from the relationships it nurtures. Meeting his bandmates (apart from lifelong friend Lipton) in 2020, when they were first cast for The Runarounds, felt like “walking into a conversation [they] had already started.” Yun rhapsodized about striking up impromptu jam sessions with fans waiting in line to see the band on tour and handing out free acoustic guitars so concertgoers could perform for each other. His favorite Princeton memory? Performing at Tiger Inn formals alongside his college best friends last spring. His Princeton roommate Gordon Helmers ’25 was on bass; his current roommate in San Francisco, Cole Lindemann ‘25, was on the keys.

Yun successfully pushed to take just a semester off for filming; he couldn’t bear to stay away from Old Nassau for long. His bandmates have visited campus multiple times, including to headline Terrace’s spring 2023 Lawnparties event, and he was thrilled to discover that Pate is an alum. “Orange is woven through this project,” Yun says.

The Runarounds wasn’t renewed for a second season, but Yun, who is joining investment management company Franklin Templeton as an associate this August, is optimistic about the future of the unconventional Runarounds project. At 23, true to Princeton’s interdisciplinary spirit, he’s already lived more lives than most.