Ned Stresen-Reuter is a 21 year-old Gemini with devilish eyes and a disarmingly handsome face that's both boyish and extremely masculine. And while his family name translates as Street Knight, family legend has him descended from minstrels and jugglers.

Minstrel or Knight, the boy with the intimidating last name from Alamogordo has been featured in major campaigns this past year for Perry Ellis, Brooks Bros. and the Gap, and been photographed by Steven Meisel, Peter Lindbergh, Stewart Shining and Francois Dissinger among others. We caught up with him the day before he left on his first trip to Europe for the shows in Milan.

What were your interests growing up?

I was terribly asthmatic and I couldn't play any sports so my parents got me involved in the theater instead. There was this great children's theater program run by Mark Medoff, author of Children of a Lesser God. My first production was Winnie the Pooh and I played Christopher Robin. I got bit by the bug and was completely hooked on theater by the age of seven, remaining active in theater throughout high school.

What did you do after high school?

I tried two different colleges the first year, settling at UNLV, but the programs were terrible and I was really bored. That Thanksgiving I was in NYC to visit some friends and walking around the city I kept thinking "This is where I want to live, how can I get here?" I always wanted to live in New York, it's got to be the coolest city. I mean when I was a little kid I even used to build models of Manhattan out of Lego blocks. It's a lot of things — I love the big tall buildings, how everything is close together and you don't need a car, I love the people, the culture, and of course I love the theater.

How did you get interested in modeling?

One of my friends was a model and she suggested I try out, so before going home I walked into the Ford agency. The receptionist told me they needed photos, so I got a friend to take some Polaroids, went back and she got me in to see an agent. The agent told me they were definitely interested, and hooked me up with a photographer in Vegas. I sent the pictures into Ford, stayed in contact with the agent and based on his promises arranged to move to New York. I found a place to stay, a part-time job, got my airline tickets, everything. Then out of the blue, a week before I was supposed to fly out, the agent told me they weren't going to take me on after all. It was really awful.