Updated demo reel

Well, I've finally gotten around to updating my demo reel. It is somewhat similar to the last one but I decided to make this one purely comedic. The serious content on my last reel wasn't terribly strong so I've decided to market my strength which is comedy.

While this reel is comedic in nature, I've been working pretty hard with my acting coach to spiff up the dramatic side of me as well. I should have some good dramatic footage coming up in two projects that are currently in post production. When I get copies of those, I'll be sure to add that footage to the reel and perhaps have two reels - one for comedy and one for drama.

Anyhoo - enjoy the reel!

Middle Men, Red Corvette, DCC, other updates...

First things, first.  I had a really cool experience recently.  I was able to land a featured role in the film, Middle Men (IMDB).  It's a comedy starring Luke Wilson and Giovanni Ribisi about the genesis of the online porn industry.  Being on this set was really quite the experience as it was by far the highest budget film that I've been on - $15M if you believe IMDB.  Kind of crazy when you think that there some actors that make more than that on a film!  I have a nice little role in this movie which might get about 3 seconds screen time.  It's a nice little reaction shot and hopefully it won't get cut in the final version! :)  I was cast as the masturbating Pakistani terrorist.  Not so sure it's a good thing that everyone was saying how believable my performance was after the shoot.  Perhaps that's a complement? The movie is slated to be released in May of 2009.  I'm not sure if it will get a theatrical release as it is an independent film but it's gone some big names in the movie so I'm hoping it will!

This little "Bollywood shot", as my friend Meera Patel calls it, was taken on the set of Red Corvette.  Red Corvette is an anti-drug independent film.  Naturally, I play the cocky, drug selling, egomaniac named Larry.  I was pretty fortunate to get cast on this project.  I had auditioned for Larry thinking he was a day player but he turned out to be a fairly substantial character in this movie.  Turned out to be a nice change of pace from the characters that I typically get cast as... doctors.. terrorists.. The movie was directed by Brenton Covington of Dynamic Film.  Just check out his IMDB page to see how awesome this guys is.. 'Nuff said.  I believe the movie was funded by a local church and I think the plans are to maybe have it broadcast on Christian-based TV channels.  But, I'm not sure about that..  Oh, and ladies, I have a shirtless scene in the movie.. (I can see the DVD pre-order sales going through the roof right about now.)  Here are some of my production stills.

In other news, some time ago I shared with you guys the web series I was in called Data Center Chronicles.  Recently, Render Films released an extended cut of the webisodes on their website.  Click here to check them out!

Last, but not least, I did an educational medical video on asthma.  That was really nice to work on because you know the videos will really be put to good use.  There will most likely be many of these types of videos made and if I ever do have anything that I am allowed to share with respect to that, I will definitely do so here.  I play a pediatrician in these videos.  I know..  scary.

Free blockbuster movies for a year

Hey folks! The good people over at PubFilms are offering free blockbuster movies for a year. Just take their movie quiz for a chance to win. Click below!

Soft Skills at Work

I just found out that a training video I shot for Aspenleaf Productions is available on Amazon! I play a GenX slacker in this video. Now, if I can just get myself a copy of this thing.. hmmm..

Crimes, Jones, stuff for Render..

In honor of the late, great Isaac Hayes, I'd like to start this entry with a Hello Childrens. It's been a while since I posted so I thought I'd take some time to provide an update as to what I've been up to as I watch the US whoop ass in the Olympics.

A few months ago, I was apart of a team that competed in a 48 hour film challenge. I was on a team led by the D+NA guys. The film went on to take the award for Best Acting. Kudos to Claudia Rubio, Valec Martinez, Patrick Adams, Heather Thomas and Cait Thompson. And, of course, Brenton and Austin of D+NA did their D+NA thang as the movie took home the awards for Best Directing, Best Cinematography, Best Sound Design, Runner Up Best Film and Runner Up Best Original Score. Just another day at the office for the boys of D+NA. Good job guys!

Just recently I shot a short film directed by Angel Ruiz. The movie is called Jones. Jones has a killer script and I can't wait to see the final product! Plus, this short gave me the opportunity to work with two PHENOMENAL actors, Tracy Timm and Blake Laramie. Guys, wait till you see the performances from these guys. Just awesome. Plus check out this cool ass poster!
Ooohh, creepy! Look out for this when it comes out!

In other news, I've started writing scripts! I'm writing a set of comedic scripts for Render Films for digital downloadable content. I must say that the experience of writing a script is pretty damn exhilarating. Can't wait to see actors bring these characters to life!

In other news, principal photography is complete on Her Special Day - it's a film in which I'm an associate producer. What makes me an associate producer? I donated a little bit moolah to the project. Quite honestly, I don't know much about the project except that it's be made by SyntheticHuman and it stars Patti Tindall. Those two items are a recipe for success if you ask me!

Well, the length of this post tells me I need to post more regularly! In conclusion, I'll leave you guys with the lost trailer of Help Wanted created by the guys over at Big Shot Studios! Enjoy!

Help Wanted Teaser

Watch me morph into Tom Hanks!

MyHeritage: Celebrity Morph - Free genealogy - Family history

Data Center Chronicles

So, earlier this week, www.wantyourlifeback.com went live. The website is a part of a marketing campaign for Brocade Communications. The website contains 4 different "webisodes", called the Data Center Chronicles, centering around the ideas of 3 employees about their ideal day off. I play their hard-ass boss. Of course, consistent with most IT bosses, my performance comes complete with a highly exaggerated Indian accent. I'm going to have to remind people that I am capable of giving a decent performance WITHOUT the indian accent. LOL..

The project was a lot of fun to shoot. The actors involved had a lot of fun together filming this thing and the director/creative team were really good about letting us improv on set which is always fun. The webisodes were directed by Amer Tadayon who runs a company called Render Films Digital Studios. Render Films has got offices in both Scottsdale and LA. They've got a lot of cool and exciting projects in their pipeline and I can say, unequivocally, that the Phoenix market is very fortunate to have guys of this caliber in this town.

On a personal level, I'm fairly excited about the Data Center Chronicles. I've been involved in some feature projects that have distribution and are available via mainstream outlets like Netflix and Amazon. But, from an exposure point of view, the Data Center Chronicles offers the most potential of all the extraordinary projects I've worked on. So, yeah, I was fairly pumped when this site came out. :) So, if you haven't checked it out, please go to http://www.wantyourlifeback.com/. And, if you genuinely enjoy the webisode, please use the feedback link in the lower right corner of the page and say so! :)

Other actors in this project:

James Ryan
Cathy Rankin
Nick Heaney
Cait Thompson
Doug Cook

Pubfilms.. working with Dynamic..

Just wanted to check in with you guys.. so, first off, you may have noticed that I'm up for the spokesperson for a website called Pubfilms - which is fairly interesting in that I wasn't even able to make the audition! LOL.. Back to that in a moment. Pubfilms is an interesting site. It was started by some local filmmakers who I worked with a while ago. Here's a video clip of some work I did for them (shameless plug.. but hey, this is my blog). Anyhow, pubfilms is a site that's trying to go to a business model in which the public funds movies. And, in doing so, the public votes on the different aspects of the movie. It's a fairly interesting concept. Basically, the users of the site vote on casting, scripts, music score, etc based on uploaded material. They've done a pretty good job securing funding so it'll be interesting to see the site once it leaves beta.

So, recently, they had an audition to be a spokesperson of their site. They recorded each audition and uploaded it to their site for voting. I actually missed the audition because I was shooting something else. But, a long time ago, I was helping the guys out in testing the site and in doing so, I uploaded an older copy of my demo reel. Well, the guys at pubfilms added my reel to the spokesperson competition without me knowing! As of this writing, I think I'm in 3rd place! So, if you would be so kind as to vote for me, I'd really appreciate it! You can vote for me at http://beta. pubfilms. com/submissions/view/15 .

In other news, I just participated in another 48 Hour Film Challenge. I worked with D+NA. Man, these guys are a ton of fun to work with.. oh, and I just saw the final cut of the film. they're friggin talented too. I've been a big fan of these guys work since I was first aware of them. The guys work hard and they FINISH what they start - an actor's dream! Anyhow, The final cut screens this Thurs, 5/8. I'll send the details out when I get them!

Finally, I've been playing with animated gifs. I thought it'd be cool to have different anitmated gif files as my profile picture on myspace. Check it out here:

This is a video clip from a short I did in another film challenge called Help Wanted. I'm thinking about creating a few animated gifs from some of my other projects and using it as my myspace profile pic. FYI, Help Wanted is among the best projects that I've ever worked on. For those of you who've missed it, you can check it out below... later gators..

Bacon Number is 3!!

If you are an actor and haven't gone to this site, you need to go there now! My friends at UVa have come up with a way to get your bacon number using your IMDB listing! This is too funny! Props to my friend Chris for sending this to me a while ago! Basically, your Bacon number is the number of degrees you are removed from Kevin Bacon with respect to the movies you've been in. My number is 3! LOL! Much love to Jose Rosete for setting the way! :)

Oracle of Bacon website: http://oracleofbacon.org/

Leave a comment with your bacon number! Check out my results below!

The Oracle of Bacon at Virginia

raj suri has a Bacon number of 3.

Raj Suri was in Dark Places (2005/I) with Jose Rosete
Jose Rosete was in What Planet Are You From? (2000) with John Goodman (I)
John Goodman (I) was in Death Sentence (2007) with Kevin Bacon

Sex, Drugs and Money Viewing!

Looks like Sex, Drugs and Money is viewing at the IFP/PHX March Happy Hour and Cinema Lounge!! The viewing is this Friday, March 14th at 7:30pm. If you are interested in tickets, click here.

GotCast.com

Hey everyone,

I've been playing around with a new casting site called GotCast.com. I think it's still in beta. Anyhow, I'll spare you all the boring details. Would you all mind going to the following link and vote for me?? Thanks!

-Raj

http://www.gotcast.com/rsuri2?cid=1003748