Ken Bhan

Kenneth Mark Bhan was born in Washington, DC, the son of engineer Chander Bhan and writer, Esme Evelyn Bhan. His father is Punjabi, while his mother is a New Delhi native. Chander Bhan has been recognized in "Who's Who in the World" as well as "Who's Who in the East" and "Men of Achievement" for his work in energy usage and procurement, particularly with IBM & Honeywell. His mother, Esme, was selected to be a fellow at Harvard University and is a published writer and archivist. She also worked at the Smithsonian Institute for a number of years.

His parent's encouraged education from an early age and while in High School, Ken was accepted into a special program at the United States Naval Academy, in his hometown of Annapolis, Maryland where he began training to be an engineer on a nuclear submarine. Continuing for three consecutive years during high school, taking evening classes usually at Michaelson or Rickover Hall, at the United States Naval Academy. He was endorsed by Maryland State Senator, Barbara Milkulski to officially enlist although his eyesight and glasses ultimately prevented him from serving active duty in the Navy, even after three consecutive years of classes at the Academy. Later he became an acting major at Howard University in Washington, DC and earned a scholarship to train with the British American Drama Academy at Balliol College at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. I find these extreme polar opposites when it comes to learning institutions across the globe, and attribute Ken's intelligence and his ability to explain just about anything, to this diverse schooling. Back to the arts, while training in Oxford, his teachers included John Barton, Fiona Shaw, Gary Sinise, Kathleen Turner and Ian Wooldridge. He was cast as the lead "Aimwell" in George Farquhar's, "The Beaux Stratagem" which he performed at the Baliol Pavilion. Ironically, months later, he got eye surgery correcting his eyesight to twenty ten. If he got eye surgery earlier, he may have spent his life in the Navy, which is quite the opposite to becoming an actor.

We recently had lunch, talked about cars, projects and he shared a few magic tricks. All while gabbing extensively about his favorite four letter word, which I'll come to later. I began scribbling notes about his work as an actor, which began in Theatre. He was offered the lead role of Aladdin in Klassika Theatre's production of "Aladdin" while at Howard University and was in "Julius Caesar" at the Washington Opera, part of the Kennedy Center Complex in Washington, DC. Later he was back at the Kennedy Center as "Malik" along with fellow Howard student, Ronald Hysten, in the world premiere of "Chump Changes" an original play by Alan Sharpe, who directed the production. This time the stage was the prestigious AFI Theater which is also part of the Kennedy Center Complex. His acting professor, Dr. Vera J. Katz would later praise his work as organic, vulnerable with humor sprinkled throughout. Commenting, "He's good at improvisation."

He joined the Screen Actors Guild while working on the TV show "The Young Americans" on the WB Network which was a spin off of "Dawson's Creek." He booked another lead role in "Dancing with the Devil" in Washington, DC, where he was able to play a version of Mephistopheles, the devil himself. He was able to develop his acting technique with the aid of professors Dr. Vera J. Katz, Mike Malone, Kim Bey, Mark Jolin and Timmy Ray James within the Fine Arts program. Days later he received a call from "Sex and the City" casting asking him to play a New York taxi driver. The next day, he was giving Sarah Jessica Parker and Bridget Monaghan a ride in a cab, in the episode "Running with Scissors" directed by Dennis Erdman.

Ken's first television commercial for professional basketball team the "Washington Wizards" and he would go on to book three more commercials the next year. Upon graduating from Howard University with a B.F.A. in acting he set off on a cross country venture to Los Angeles where he settled in Venice Beach and managed to book an AT&T commercial within weeks of landing. He trained with Bernard Hiller in Burbank, California and prompted Bernard to describe his work as "an Oscar-worthy performance" during a scene portrayal from the popular play "Boy's Life" in Bernard's scene study workshop.

He worked with Kelsey Grammer, Fred Willard, Patricia Heaton and Josh Gad directed by James Burrows in "Back to You" from Twentieth Century Fox. He appeared in the popular TV series "Lie to Me" where he played a lab technician opposite Tim Roth and Erica Christiansen. He also played a resident doctor in "The Good Doctor" directed by Lance Daly and winner in the Tribeca Film Festival. He supported fellow doctors, Orlando Bloom, Rob Morrow, Troy Garity and nurse Taraji P. Henson in this feature film thriller, written by John Enbom. He was cast as series regular "Sterling Raffey" in the TV pilot "The Trainer" portraying an overconfident personal trainer opposite Barry Williams, Alex Petrovitch, Tarneisha Stimage and Alice Walker. The project was created, written and directed by Richard Alan Elias, who later gave Ken a 'producer' credit for going above and beyond the normal call of duty.

That summer Ken was involved in a near tragic automobile accident where two surgeries on his left arm and shoulder and three years of physical therapy left him addicted to prescription painkillers. Once fully recovered, he made a resolve to never take prescription pain killers again and returned to his childhood hobby of close up magic to help exercise his mind, and get his neural network back in optimal form. He keeps a deck of cards in his wallet and does magic spontaneously. He was invited and eventually performed at the world famous Magic Castle after speaking with Jack Goldfinger, Director of Entertainment at the Castle. His magic is all based on his favorite four letter word, which is math. Yes, math. He says "Math never lies" Underneath his quirky persona, he's a DIY problem solver with an astonishing high IQ. He's also the only person I know who quit prescription pain killers by doing magic.

He plays a spiritual life coach "Pradeep" in the feature film "Bad People" written and directed by Alex Petrovitch. Alex noted audience reviews indicate Ken's scenes are among the funniest parts of the film. Going to the dark side he's a villain in feature film "Kings of L.A." portraying "Samir" opposite actor William Johnson with Michael Paré, Paula Jai Parker, Alimi Ballard and directed by Van Elder. It's a gritty crime thriller set in south central Los Angeles which I streamed the previous evening.

When he's not on a film or television set, you can find him doing stand-up comedy in local comedy clubs, or, in his garage tinkering with cars, adding custom features that can do things like brew a cup of tea, inflate your tires, and keep all your stuff in place while "drifting" using "power oversteer" to slide the vehicle around turns. He possesses the rare ability to "drift" cars which he tells me is called "Power Oversteer" and started when he was fifteen years old. He assures me, it's just math. He enjoys stunt driving and his skills and roadster were featured in a video by hiphop artist "ScHoolboy Q" which was aired at a recent Coachella event. Obviously he's an avid car enthusiast, and strangely, has an immaculate record with zero tickets over the last fifteen years, even though he often drives from Los Angeles to Washington DC, and back again. I asked him how many times have you driven across the country? He answered, "At least fifty, maybe a hundred. Every time you drive across the country, you usually have to drive back, so you double the number. " I replied, "Let me guess, math?"

If you have a chance to meet him and he asks if you want to see a magic trick, my advice is to say yes. I'm not very good at math like Ken, but I consider it a mathematical certainty, he'll blow your mind.