In 2000, DeBello played an affable football player who gets embroiled in his girlfriend's plot to kill her abusive stepfather in "Crime + Punishment in Suburbia". Leaving the task of playing the dark and mysterious young man to co-star Vincent Kartheiser, DeBello made the most of his unexpectedly complex role, fleshing out his character through a nuanced and naturalistic performance. 2000 also saw the actor playing a misogynist in training in the festival-screened independent "100 Girls", a role he managed to make his own in an unlikely endearing way. Cast as the drummer in a band in the 2002 midseason replacement series "My Guide to Beceoming a Rock Star" (The WB), DeBello would be exposed to his widest audience to date.