Today we’d like to introduce you to Omar Zaki.
Omar, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I grew up in Reston, VA as a competitive athlete in Track & Field, Soccer, Volleyball, and Swimming & Diving but everything changed in 2010 when I began learning Parkour & Freerunning. My best friend and I started filming ourselves doing Parkour and in June of 2011 we released our 1st YouTube video and though I didn’t know it at the time, this was the beginning of my entertainment story.
From that point on, everything was parkour. I began making more parkour-themed YouTube videos, teaching parkour, and performing parkour in various live-shows around Northern Virginia.
In 2012, I started college at George Mason University to study Classical Guitar and Kinesiology where I met one of the most influential people of my entire life. His name was Ryan Glass (Wakeuptoryan). He reached out and we made our first YouTube video together which got over 50,000 views in one week! We continued shooting more and more videos together and with the increased exposure from his videos, I ended up getting sponsored by WFPF (World Freerunning & Parkour Federation) and then in 2014 I decided to compete in the onsite qualifiers for a Parkour & Freerunning competition held in Santorini, Greece called Redbull Art of Motion. It was now that I was beginning to see the potential I had for a life in the entertainment industry.
I took a gap year from College after my 2nd year to see exactly what I could accomplish when I focused on parkour and YouTube 100%. I saw an extremely positive trend in everything I was trying to accomplish and never looked back. The next milestone was when I did an Avatar the Last Airbender Live Action short film with Ryan Glass which was my first time writing and really getting into acting on camera. I still had a lot to learn but putting together that short film with Ryan was an immense learning experience for me. I had now decided that I wanted to commit 1000% to making a career in the entertainment industry and moved to Los Angeles in 2016. Once arriving in LA, I almost immediately booked a Summer time Live-show coincidentally enough back in Virginia working for three months at Busch Gardens performing in a three musketeers themed show called ‘All For One’. Following that, I booked the role of Iron Fist in the show Marvel Universe LIVE! I toured and performed around the country with that show for 13 months until May of 2018 when I moved back to Los Angeles for the 2nd time with a commitment to pursue commercial, television and film.
I’m 25 years old now and it’s been one year since I moved back to Los Angeles and I have been astounded with the great opportunities I’ve been presented with. Since I’ve been here, I have trained my butt off to become a more well-rounded Stuntman, I starred in Disturbed’s music video, “Are You Ready” doing parkour and acting, I booked multiple student films and commercials, my YouTube Channel broke 100,000 subscribers, I edited together my 1st voiceover reel, I booked a role on a major network Television show, and more importantly, I found a group of people that I’m lucky enough to call my friends.
I’m currently pursuing acting, stunts, YouTube and voiceover. Although the entertainment industry certainly isn’t the simplest or easiest place to make a career, I can feel myself learning and growing more and more each day and I wouldn’t trade any of the experience that I’ve gained or the successes that I’ve had for anything in the world.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
That’s a good question. I only know my road so that’s all I can speak on. I would say things are definitely going well for me right now. I know some of that is luck (as is the nature in the entertainment industry) but at the same time I’ve also put in an insane amount of work over the past five years training, editing, making countless YouTube videos, branding myself, and so much more to allow myself to get to where I am now. The main struggle for me (which is hardly a true struggle compared to some) is trying to juggle the various things that I am passionate about. My primary income comes from YouTube so planning, shooting, and editing content for YouTube has to be a priority for me but I also am pursuing acting, stunts, and voiceover where either one of those could be an entire career alone.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
My business right now is my Brand. That means my business is my name and all things that are attached to it such as my Stunt Reel, my Acting Reel, my YouTube Channel, and my website.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
My plans for the near future are to join SAG since I’m currently eligible, begin taking Improv classes, as well as find a theatrical agent to represent me in the TV world. Other than that, I’ll be continuing to do everything that I’m already doing on a bigger and better scale. I’ll still be training in stunts, taking acting classes, making YouTube videos, and taking every opportunity that comes my way whether it’s for acting, stunts, or voiceover.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.omar-zaki.com & www.youtube.com/omarzakifreerunning
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/omarzakifreerunning
Image Credit:
Charlotte Geary. Xiaoqi Li. Brian Doherty. Emily Sandifer. Kenny Leahman. Kyle Murillo.
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