Raz Degan

Raz Degan was born in the Kibbutz Sde Nehemia in Israel. At the age of 21, after three years military service in the Israeli Army, he became a male model and commenced an itinerant lifestyle traveling around the world. The love for travel and adventure has led Raz to travel to over 100 countries in the past two decades. He began his acting career with a cameo role in Robert Altman's 1994 film Pret-a-Porter. The same year Raz was selected for numerous TV commercials round the world, one of which made him popular in Italy. By the mid-1990s, Degan was based in New York, modeling and focused on studying acting/yoga while working in Italy in several cinematographic / television films. By 2000, Raz moved to Los Angeles where he was studying to become a yoga teacher in Santa Monica, yoga works . In 2002 Degan moved back to Italy and opened "East West Gallery", an art gallery focusing on promoting young painters from around the world. That year he played Jesus on stage in Giorgio Albertazzi ... Pilato sempre. 2003 Raz opened East West Gallery in Milan Italy a gallery devoted to promote young artist from around the world at the same time hosting international events such as Ronnie wood's (rolling stone ) art show and many others . In 2004, he secured the role of Darius III in Oliver Stone's epic film Alexander, and in 2007 he played the lead in Maestro's Ermanno Olmi last motion film Cento chiodi which was presented in the Cannes film fest and nominated italian Oscar. The same year Raz filmed his first doco-pop about the Kumbh Mela in India 2008/9 Raz continued to star in various italian film productions playing different roles from hero to villein. 2010 Raz played in the French film Force Special together with Diane Kruger and Djimon Hounsou; fallowing the shooting Raz stayed on and traveled Tajikistan Afghanistan across the Pamir range into Tibet and Nepal shooting shot documentaries for italian TV. The same year Raz hosted the TV show Mistero on Italia 1; he stayed host for two seasons making several documentaries. In 2011 Degan played in the German film Oma in Roma together with Marianne Sägebrecht and Giancarlo Giannini. Degan interests in travel and documentaries continued and in late 2011 he traveled to the Peruvian Amazon working on an international feature documentary "the last shaman", (Ayahuasca -shamans). In 2012 Raz returned to the kumbh mela- India, this time filming a feature documentary entitled "the lost shadu". (the hippie trail towards nirvana) both documentaries are part of a trilogy exploring the nature of self discovery.