Shaz Khan

Shaz during his training years at the venerable Actors Studio MFA Program was compared to a young Sean Penn. An ambitious comparison but there was no denying even during those formative years he was always pushing the envelope, taking bold risks and paving the way for this young man to be one of the most exciting actors of this generation. His ethnically ambiguous look has had him cast in a wide range of ethnicities and roles where he is able to showcase an emotional capacity way beyond his years. He was born Shazli Hafeez Khan in Oxnard, Ca but moved to Pakistan when he was 4 years old. Stayed in his native country with his family till middle school before moving back to the Philadelphia suburbs with his parents and brothers. He ended up attending Penn State University where he majored in Finance while taking a small bite in film which was to come back with a fury. Securing a job with a Fortune 500 bank before graduation he worked in banking for a little while but was frustrated with the lack of creativity in his work. In those years he would attend casting calls and through just his raw energy was able to secure roles in local plays and films which ignited an inner search that made him realize that Acting at that moment would be his path. He tendered his resignation and moved to NYC to pursue acting with a suitcase and a tin can of foresight. He trained and worked in the city for three years working on independent movies and plays and graduated from the Actors Studio Drama School with a MFA in Acting. After completing numerous independent shorts and feature films he moved to Los Angeles and wrapped production on "Flutter" in Oct 2011 where he played Jake, a young man losing his battle with cancer. This was a hallmark in his growth as an actor. Khan kept working all around the U.S on indie films and one winter went to Pakistan to visit his family only to randomly audition and win the lead role in the International feature film "MOOR" due out Summer of 2015. The film was shot on location in a village in Muslim Bagh close to the dangerous Afghanistan border as well as in the port city of Karachi. He played the lead of troubled Ehsaan and it will be his debut in the recently flourishing Pakistani Film Industry. Shaz around this same time starting to express himself behind the camera as well. Spending a couple of years learning screen writing on his own as well producing his own short films. He finished production on a feature he has written called Circumference (A Desi Story) where he played the title character of Chip, the bombastic egomaniac who gets incriminated for something he didn't do leading him into a wild goose chase involving ancient scrolls, shadowy mullahs, fortune tellers and an eventual existential crisis. He is slated to star in the feature film The Servant. An inspiring tale of a humble servant in Pakistan who ends up becoming the biggest movie star in the country.