Room For One More

Here's a short film that I was fortunate to work on with students over at UAT.  Enjoy!

Room For One More from So Major on Vimeo.

Support AZ Film

As many of you already know, the APA is fighting to keep the Arizona Motion Picture Tax Incentive Program alive (MOPIC). As an actor living in AZ, it's imperative that you contact your Represenative to ask them to extend the program. Below is an email template that you can use to email your local government officials. Many thanks to fellow actor, Pete Kelly, for setting up the email template. All you have to do is cut and paste the email addresses and body of the email into your favorite email program. Obviously, replace my name in the email with your name. Also many thanks to all involved in drafting up the talking points in this email.

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To: kcheuvront@azleg.gov
CC: rgould@azleg.gov; dmccunedavis@azleg.gov; rmiranda@azleg.gov; rpearce@azleg.gov; spierce@azleg.gov; bleff@azleg.gov; jwaring@azleg.gov; paboud@azleg.gov; aaguirre@azleg.gov; callen@azleg.gov; sallen@azleg.gov; malvarez@azleg.gov; rburns@azleg.gov; mburtoncahill@azleg.gov; jgarcia@azleg.gov; pgorman@azleg.gov; cgray@azleg.gov; lgray@azleg.gov; ahale@azleg.gov; jharper@azleg.gov; jhuppenthal@azleg.gov; llandrumtaylor@azleg.gov; llopez@azleg.gov; amelvin@azleg.gov; jnelson@azleg.gov; jpaton@azleg.gov; rrios@azleg.gov; jtibshraeny@azleg.gov; tverschoor@azleg.gov
Subject: AZ Motion Picture Tax Incentive Program

Greetings State/Senate Representatives !

My name is Raj Suri and I'm a local working actor.It is my understanding that the Arizona Production Association is fighting to keep the Arizona Motion Picture Tax Incentive Program alive (MOPIC). An economic Impact Study is underway and the preliminary results are showing that the information the Dept.of Commerce (ADOC) has provided to the Legislature is critically flawed and underestimated.

· ADOC is only looking at taxes generated from post-approved spending and not taxes generated from all production spending ($44 million versus $91 million for pre-approved applicants).
· While some of the post-approved spending was ruled ineligible for tax credits, it still has a positive impact on the economy and should be included in the model.
· The permanent jobs that are created are career jobs that pay an average annual wage of $39,788, which is above the state average annual wage of $27,917.
· Since the initiation of the tax credit program, the state has seen a significant increase in the number of productions, production companies, and total production-related wages paid in Arizona.
· The economic impacts of this industry are similar to the tourism and convention industry. It supports hotels, restaurants, rental cars, etc., but in a vastly greater way since stays are not typically one to two weeks, but rather months at a time.
· The tax credit program is not a "spending" program. No state dollars have been appropriated within the state's budget to give away. The State is not losing anything by having this program in place.

Please support the Motion Picture Tax Credit.
Thanks very much for your time,
Raj Suri
Chandler, AZ

Great youtube comment..

Here's a recent comment I got on my Comedy Reel on Youtube.

"who is raj suri? Is he trying to market himself through these videos. His video was listed as a sponsored link! Not at all impressive! Were you trying to make the audience laugh or cry? Dont ever try this in India, you may be banned!!"

Rock! My first fan!

New Gigs

Somehow, someway, I'm able to continually use the Jedi Mind Trick on directors and producers and convince them to cast me in their projects.  It's a pretty nifty trick.  I can teach this skill to you for just 3 easy payments of $9.99.  Now how much would you pay?

The latest projects that will have to deal with me are Feed and Mr. E Comics.  I'll be filming a trailer for Feed shortly and a webisode for Mr. E-Comics at the end of the month!  I'm really excited to be attached to these projects.  Check out the links for each project to learn more about them.

Sniper: Anatomy of a Kill

Raj Suri as an Arab
Originally uploaded by Raj Suri

I recently had the pleasure of work with Karga 7 Pictures on "Sniper: The Anatomy of a Kill". I played a Taliban insurgent. I think it'd be fun to try and go through airport security dressed this way. I wonder if I'd get stopped?

Anyhow - the documentary is set to air sometime in Q4 of this year on the History Channel. Here's the imdb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1411248/