Michael Goorjian

Meet Michael Goorjian. As a multi-talented young star with a career that keeps going and going like the Energizer Bunny, Michael would seem like the guy who would be nothing more than just a pretty face. But don't be fooled: This 32 year old is about as talented as they come. One day he'll be pretty in pink flapping and selling newspapers on the streets of Central Park in Disney's Newsies and the next he's roughing it with big Hollywood directors.

Unlike many celebrities, Michael Goorjian was not seeking a career for fame and fortune, instead he wanted to chase the footprints of his brainy dad and become a physicist. Michael, an Aquarius, was raised in his artsy parents' loft in Oakland, California. His father was a physicist at NASA and his mother was a nurse, and tiny Eagle Scout Michael himself enjoyed studying quantum physics. With role models this solid you might expect him to be an engineer or a doctor. However, the acting bug bit him at an early age and he soon became interested in performing arts. He first began his acting career doing local theater at the tender age of thirteen mainly as a way to spend less time in class. During that time, he worked with drama director Dennis Kohles in companies such as the Contra Costa Musical Theater Company, the Berkeley Shakespeare and the San Francisco's American Conservatory Theater where he studied acting, singing, and dancing. After completing high school he moved to Los Angeles to attend undergrad at UCLA and study theater arts. That probably makes many of his fans glad Michael missed lectures in study hall and gave Hollywood a chance.

In 1991, Michael and some friends from UCLA established the award winning Buffalo Nights Theater Company sited in Los Angeles, California. His most notable stage works include Modigliani, Apollo of Bellac, and of late Pulitzer's Prize Award-winning J.B. Outside the company he has choreographed the L.A. production of Reefer Madness! the Off-Broadway musical. He also founded a San Francisco Bay Area Maldoror Productions, Inc. after a French surrealist novel he says impacted his style of film-making.

Michael was making his face familiar in living rooms too. He guest starred in the television series "Growing Pains" (1985) in 1993 and in 1992-1993 he was a regular as Ray Nelson on the ABC hit show "Life Goes On" (1989/I). Other television credits include "Touched by an Angel" (1994), "Sweet Justice" (1994), and "Under Suspicion" (1994). He was featured in a few movies in chain like Newsies (1992), Forever Young (1992), and The Flood: Who Will Save Our Children? (1993) (TV).

At age 22, he snagged his first Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actor as an autistic boy in the CBS TV movie David's Mother (1994) (TV). And the morning after, he was signed to join Nicolas Cage and Elisabeth Shue in Leaving Las Vegas (1995). And of course, thousands of other opportunities were awaiting him because everybody wanted a piece of this newcomer.

Later in 1994, Michael engaged the role made in particular for him as Justin Thompson of "Party of Five" (1994). Since he was out of town at the time, he did not audition for the part, but instead got cast off of his demo tape. His character was so compelling and fan-amiable that his six episode contract was lengthened to three more years. But in 1997, he took leave of the Party scene to become a filmmaker. For his first approach he wrote and sold screenplays and starred in movies such as _SLC Punk! (1999)_ , Something More (1999), and The Invisibles (1999), which he co-produced.

Michael says his secret for success is to go after every dream actively. He simply does it all-acts, writes, directs, choreographs and produces screenplays, stage plays, even music CDs. The busier the better, he says.

There are a couple of big things brewing in Michael Goorjian's life right now. Sure he's selling screenplays he wrote and working on some new films he directed, but he is much more motivated these days by outwardly normal stuff like teaching part-time as a drama professor at Loyola Marymount University. Michael continues his long devotion to theatre by making appearances back at Buffalo Nights. He has just recently finished his feature film debut, Oakland Underground (1997), a mock documentary about an underground cult, set in his hometown, Oakland. He has just completed _Illusion_ with Kirk Douglas and Happily Even After (2004). Both films are set to be due out in festivals in 2004