About Rajeev Varma
Rajeev Varma is an actor, writer, producer, director, voice over artist, casting assistant, educator, son, brother and loving husband to his US-born wife. He immigrated to America in 2006 from New Zealand and now has US Citizenship and is a member of SAG/AFTRA and EQUITY. In May 2014 he wrapped five weeks shooting 10 Episodes of a new FOX/StarPlus sitcom called Brown Nation as the lead character Hasmukh. He has been cast in Roundabout Theater Company's 2014 Fall production of Indian Ink by Tom Stoppard, which will also run at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco in early 2015. Cary Perloff, Artistic Director of A.C.T., will direct the production. Rajeev Varma graduated with a Diploma in Acting from The Unitec School of Performing and Screen Arts in Auckland, New Zealand, in 1995. Upon graduation he created his first theater company, The Rising Generation Theatre Company, through which he produced and acted in Play Lunch, Spies Spy or Die and Versus, all written by Toa Fraser. He produced the premiere season of Bare by Toa Fraser and also produced, acted, devised and starred in Look Me In The Eye, at the Silo Theater, Auckland in 1999. In the nineties Raj worked in the NZ Film and Television Industry. Credits include: Xena: Warrior Princess, Young Hercules, Hercules, Cleopatra 2525, Letter to Blanchy, Shortland Street, Asia Down Under, P.E.T. Detectives, Serial Killers, The Mike King Show, Some of My Best Friends Are...Indian, B & B and Burying Brian. Raj worked his way up the industry ladder, going from small bit parts to larger character roles and eventually to lead roles over an eighteen-year period. He ultimately booked the role of Ganesh in a 13 episode prime time thriller/comedy for TV3 in New Zealand entitled The Blue Rose. The show shot for five months in 2012. The Blue Rose won a Bronze World Medal for Best Drama at the 2014 New York International Film and Television Awards in Las Vegas. Raj walked the red carpet with his co-stars from the show and accepted on behalf of South Pacific Pictures. From 2000-2002, Rajeev was a core member of the improvisation comedy troupe The Improv Bandits. In 2003, he toured with them to the Melbourne Comedy Festival. As a core member Raj performed most Friday nights at the Silo Theater in Auckland for two years. In 2003, he created his second theater company, The Untouchables Collective, New Zealand's first South-Asian theatre company with 19 actors, writers and designers. The Collective premiered its first production,Yatra, at the Wellington Fringe Festival 2004, to great acclaim. From 2003 onwards, he created his third theater company; Those Indian Guys, with New Zealand comedian Tarun Mohanbhai. Those Indian Guys toured extensively with their critically acclaimed solo show D'Arranged Marriage and two-hander From India with Love, to Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Canada and South Africa between 2003 and 2012. Those Indian Guys forged a name for themselves in New Zealand as the face of South Asian comedy and Rajeev won national recognition in New Zealand appearing on numerous talk shows, magazines, newspapers and comedy specials. In 2004 he shot 1nite, an independent feature film in which he played a troubled Sheikh taxi driver. Raj immersed himself in Sheikh culture and shadowed Auckland taxi drivers for the role and spent 6 months growing a beard in preparation. In 2007, Rajeev starred in two prime time comedy shows for TV3 in New Zealand: The Millen Baird Show and A Thousand Ap...