Kal Parekh (Hindi: कल पारिख) is an

Indian-American Indian Americans or Indo-Americans are citizens of the United States with ancestry from India. The United States Census Bureau uses the term Asian Indian to avoid confusion with Native Americans, who have also historically been referred to ...

film and television actor best known for his starring role in the 2010 independent feature film, ''Karma Road'' and as Sanjeev, an Indian-American flight engineer in the

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

television series, ''

Pan Am Pan American World Airways, originally founded as Pan American Airways and commonly known as Pan Am, was an American airline that was the principal and largest international air carrier and unofficial overseas flag carrier of the United States ...

'', set in the 1960s.

Early life

Parekh was born in India. In the late 1980s, his parents moved the family to the United States, settling in

Verona, New Jersey Verona is a township in Essex County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 14,572, an increase of 1,240 (+9.3%) from the 2010 census count of 13,332, which in turn reflected a decl ...

. Parekh graduated from Verona High School. He next studied at and graduated from the

School of Visual Arts The School of Visual Arts New York City (SVA NYC) is a private for-profit art school in New York City. It was founded in 1947 and is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design. History This school was started by ...

(SVA) in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. While at SVA, Parekh produced an animated short that was screened at various film festivals. During his time at SVA, he learned to dance by watching music videos. Although self-taught, Parekh's talent for dancing enabled him to join dance troupes on both the west and east coasts of the United States. He said,

Dancing liberated me, I was no longer an introverted individual, which I had been my whole life. Dancing came very naturally to me. I never took classes. It's something I just picked up and ended up being good at.

In 2002 he was cast in the first ever South Asian production on Broadway titled "Rang: Shades of my soul." He went on to teach for four years at

Arya Dance Academy Aryan or Arya (, Indo-Iranian *''arya'') is a term originally used as an ethnocultural self-designation by Indo-Iranians in ancient times, in contrast to the nearby outsiders known as 'non-Aryan' (*''an-arya''). In Ancient India, the term ' ...

. Parekh has said that dancing helped him to imagine acting.

Career

After graduating from SVA, Parekh took classes in live-action film at the

New York Film Academy New York Film Academy – School of Film and Acting (NYFA) is a private for-profit film school and acting school based in New York City, Los Angeles, and Miami. The New York Film Academy was founded in 1992 by Jerry Sherlock, a former film, t ...

(NYFA). Soon after, he landed his first major role, as Shaheed in the

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

-language film, ''Khel Shuru''. He learned Hindi for the part. Parekh next was cast in several small roles in television series, including ''

House A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condi ...

'', ''

Entourage An entourage () is an informal group or band of people who are closely associated with a (usually) famous, notorious, or otherwise notable individual. The word can also refer to: Arts and entertainment * L'entourage, French hip hop / rap collecti ...

'', ''

Medium Medium may refer to: Science and technology Aviation *Medium bomber, a class of war plane * Tecma Medium, a French hang glider design Communication * Media (communication), tools used to store and deliver information or data * Medium of ...

'', and ''

Royal Pains ''Royal Pains'' (stylized ℞oyalPains) is an American comedy-drama television series that ran on the USA Network from 2009 to 2016. The series was based in part on actual concierge medicine practices of independent doctors and companies. The ca ...

''. A professional dancer, the Parekh was cast as a featured dancer in the 2002 Bollywood film ''

Kehtaa Hai Dil Baar Baar ''Kehtaa Hai Dil Baar Baar'' () is a 2002 Indian Hindi romantic film directed by Rahul Dholakia and stars Jimmy Sheirgill, Kim Sharma and Paresh Rawal. Plot Ranchhod Rai Patel (Paresh Rawal) is an egotistical and arrogant self-made Gujarati ...

''. In 2007, Parekh landed another Bollywood role in the feature film ''

Ta Ra Rum Pum ''Ta Ra Rum Pum'' is a 2007 Indian Hindi-language sports drama film directed by Siddharth Anand from a screenplay penned by Habib Faisal. It stars Saif Ali Khan, Rani Mukerji, Angelina Idnani, Ali Haji and Javed Jaffrey in lead roles. In the fi ...

'' as the character Nilesh. In 2010, Parekh had a lead role in the independent film ''Karma Road'', as the character Ronick. Directed by

Mihir Pathak Mihir is a given name. Notable people with the given name include: *Mihir Bose, British Indian journalist and author *Mihir Das, Indian actor *Mihir Desai, Indian human rights lawyer * Mihir A. Desai, American economist *Mihir Diwakar (born 1982), ...

, the film won the Silver Award for Best Feature Film at the 2010

Philadelphia Film Festival The Philadelphia Film Festival is a film festival founded by the Philadelphia Film Society held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The annual festival is held at various theater venues throughout the Greater Philadelphia Area. Overview The annual f ...

and the Gold Level Award for a feature film at the 2010 California Film Awards. In early 2011, he was cast as Sanjeev in the ABC prime-time period drama ''Pan Am''. He and the show were quite popular, especially in Europe, and won a ''Rose d'Or'' in 2012. In 2013, he co-starred as Aaron on the

FOX Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

drama,

The Following ''The Following'' is an American crime thriller television series created by Kevin Williamson, and jointly produced by Outerbanks Entertainment and Warner Bros. Television. The first season follows former FBI agent Ryan Hardy ( Kevin Bacon) ...

. He recently completed filming a lead role in The Spectacular Jihad of Taz Raheem. Parekh resides in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Parekh, Kal Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Male actors from New Jersey American male film actors American male television actors Indian emigrants to the United States People from Verona, New Jersey Verona High School (New Jersey) alumni New York Film Academy alumni American people of Gujarati descent American male actors of Indian descent