Today we’d like to introduce you to Shaan Sharma.
Hi Shaan, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers.
I started acting in plays in high school and then moved into on-camera acting after graduating. I worked in the Twin Cities market for ten years until relocating to Los Angeles in the summer of 2007. After not having the results I was hoping for the first couple of years, I focused on my on-camera acting training for two solid years and then started working consistently around 2013. After doing a lot of co-star roles on network television, I switched teams to focus on guest star and above work. After a handful of those, I landed my current job as a series regular playing Shmuel on the international hit TV show “The Chosen.” We’re about to launch season three, and then have four more seasons to go, so I’m very fortunate to have a job for the medium-term future. Where God takes me after that, only He knows.
As part of that journey, I worked in commercial casting for ten years for 45 different casting directors and 400+ projects. I started teaching commercial acting and auditioning, and then expanded to teaching on-camera acting for film and TV once my own career took off. I wrote a book on commercial acting that’s also available as an audiobook, called “Commercial Acting in LA: A Session Director’s Guide.”
I’ve also been regularly writing advice articles for actors for Backstage, CastingFrontier, and LimeLight, with over 50 articles published.
Finally, I’ve been serving my union SAG-AFTRA in both official and grassroots ways for seven years, currently serving on the Los Angeles Local Board and on the National Board as an alternate. I’m the Co-Chair of the LA Conservatory and Chair of the LA Member Orientations. I just finished leading a LA Workgroup on Self Taped Auditions, where we worked with hundreds of members and industry partners to develop 38 proposals for limitations and guidelines on self-taped and remote auditions to protect performers from abusive and unreasonable requests. Those proposals were just unanimously passed in the SAG-AFTRA LA Local Boardroom and are now being reviewed by the newly-formed national Self Tape Taskforce.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The road may not have been smooth or what I could have predicted, but my mindset has kept the journey feeling smooth. The hardest part of my journey hasn’t been the challenges associated with becoming a successful working actor, supporting myself with my art. That’s just been a constant game of adaptation and growth and training and relationship-building and tireless work.
The hard part has been the politics and personalities that I’m confronted with in my union service. Many of us have had to cut people out of our lives, family members included, to protect ourselves from drama and destructive behavior. But it’s my duty to serve my union to the best of my ability, so I can’t walk away from it even if I’ve encountered the worst kind of behavior I’ve seen since I was a child; selfishness, meanness, libel, slander, gossip, cowardice, incompetence, retaliation, corruption, and violence.
The good news is that I and others have been working very hard to drive that kind of behavior out of our union and we’re making great progress, especially in the Los Angeles Local that represents half the members of the union. President Fran Drescher has also shown incredibly brave and wise leadership in trying to bring the warring factions together and de-escalate partisan animosity for the common good of the union, often throwing her body into the gears of the political machinery.
And the healthier we can make the leadership and union volunteer environment, the more we’ll be able to attract and retain new volunteers that will make our union stronger and more effective than ever.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
First and foremost, I’m an actor and a storyteller. I’m also a musician, so I’ve been expressing myself through art since I was a child. But I’m also an educator, and that’s what I’d like to focus on here.
I specialize in developing actors for work in film, TV, and commercials, but not just from a craft training perspective.
It’s as important for us to understand the business and how to succeed in it, as well as understand the role of the entertainment unions, most importantly our unions, like SAG-AFTRA and Actors Equity Association. They exist to fight for and protect the value of our professions in the marketplace. It’s our duty to be informed and engaged to the greatest extent possible.
And finally, we have to take care of ourselves; our emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual parts of ourselves, so that we can be reliable and consistent as performers, which is the key to success. Consistent, high-quality output over a long period of time.
I’m known for being a fierce advocate for our union; creating new programs and resources to help our members feel like they’re part of a family and to help them succeed. I’m also known for being a reformer, starting first with our LA Conservatory, then our LA Local in general, and now our union as a whole across the nation. I’ve published letters to members and educational articles, all intended to demystify our union and increase our members’ union literacy.
During the early days of the pandemic when we were all trapped in our homes, I created an unofficial Union Literacy Guide that became the foundation for the creation of a first-ever, high-quality and comprehensive Member Orientation presentation that will forever change the way we, as a union, onboard new members. It covers our union’s governance system, our contracts, constitutions, Locals, member categories, benefits of membership, our support companies, and our sister unions, guilds, & associations. It’s everything we wish we would have been taught both before and after joining the union. I would say that is what I’m most proud of so far.
My hope is that as many of our 170,000 members as possible have a functional understanding of our union and our contracts so that they can be fierce unionists out in the field, and that as many of them as a possible volunteer to serve in leadership, workgroups, committees, and supporting our Local staff.
Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
Everyone is welcome to reach out to me to get involved with any of the work I am doing, whether it’s our table reads with the WGA and Coverfly, my acting studio, The Storytellers Conservatory, or in union service, helping with creating educational resources, agent/manager/casting showcases, self-taping support, member education, and political reform.
Just email me at [email protected]. I’m also on IG: @shaan_sharma, and Twitter: @shaansharma.
Pricing:
- My acting classes are $75/per class
- Private coaching is $100/hour
Contact Info:
- Website: https://storytellersconservatory.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shaan_sharma/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shaansumeetsharma
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/shaansharma
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNZ2mlockCMuYA7qgzxW0Cw
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-storytellers-conservatory-los-angeles?osq=storytellers+conservatory
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/shaan_sharma
- Other: https://solidarity.us/
