Mehrdad Sarlak

An MIT graduate, patented inventor, and former classically-trained concert violinist, Mehrdad began pursuing his passion for acting in parallel to a successful corporate career. After numerous commercial and print projects, he started his film career with The Ketchup Conspiracy (2001). After a series of starring roles in other independent films, he teamed with Reno Wilson to produce and co-star in his first Hollywood feature entitled Fronterz (2004), starring Ted Danson, Henry Winkler, Reno Wilson, and Garth Belcon. Fronterz (2004) went on to secure international distribution and North American television distribution on Starz Encore. After being cast by the late Mike Nichols in Charlie Wilson's War (2007) and Ben Affleck in Argo (2012), he went on to host and produce a live, unscripted popular weekly television show on Andisheh International TV called "From East to West." In 2016, in collaboration with Rayka Zehtabchi, (who won an Oscar in 2019 for her short documentary, Period. End of Sentence. (2018), he executive produced and co-starred in Madaran (2016), a live action narrative short film based on a true story that Oscar qualified for Academy Consideration and garnered many awards during its successful festival run. Rayka and Mehrdad intend to make the feature version of this powerful human story. His current multi-award winning live action short film, El Astronauta (2018), is successfully moving through the festival circuit with the aim at Oscar qualification for 2020. Additionally, you can catch Mehrdad in a starring role in the web-series Recruited (2019), (inspired by actual events) where he plays Staff Sgt. Lambert, a Marine Recruiter dealing with the challenges of recruiting marines in the age of social media. The actor/producers/TV host speaks English and Persian (Farsi) fluently and is based in Los Angeles.