Erich Fleshman

Erich Fleshman is a trained actor born in Walnut Creek, California where he grew up playing like a performing artist and acting like a basketball player. Not long after starting university, his inner wanderer took over and he jumped into a study abroad program in Vietnam. His travels continued as he delved into the languages, cultures, and film histories of Southeast Asia. Approached on a basketball court by a director while he was studying in Thailand, Erich found his calling after landing a supporting TV role, in Thai. Erich then began working regularly and extensively in the international entertainment industry both in front of and behind the camera. Within a few years he had been involved in American, Asian and European feature films, television dramas, as well as international and local TV commercials.. Erich won the hearts of the Thai people for his role in the popular film Heaven's Seven (2002), in which he played the role of Mike, a GI who made his living bootlegging American oil to the Thais. The role quickly pushed Erich into the limelight, and following lead roles in numerous Thai TV series, including The Red Roof (2004), Champion Boxer (2003), Strange Tree in the Forest (2002), and Power (1999), he became a genuine celebrity in Thailand. Erich went on to work with award-winning Thai filmmaker Pen-ek Ratanaruang in the short film Twelve Twenty (2006) and as Tim, the reclusive father of Paula Taylor, in the popular Thai TV3 series Lady Maha-chon aka The People's Lady (2006). He also worked with Paula in her TV debut In a Strange Country (2002) and again in the US feature film Hellgate (2009) where he worked closely with William Hurt and Cary Elwes behind the scenes. In 2009 Erich produced and directed two documentaries and over the next few years began working extensively as an acting and dialect coach. For the next few years Erich worked behind the scenes on five big budget international films. In Ip Man 2 (2010) he provided the English voiceover for a character played by Wong Shun-Leung and later that year he worked as a drama and dialect coach for Hong Kong superstar Shawn Yue in My Best Bodyguard (2010). In 2011, he juggled multiple accents/characters as a drama and dialect coach for the following international stars: Tomer Sisley, Ulrich Tukur, Napakpapha Nakprasitte, Olivier Barthelemy, Nirut Sirichanya, Dmitriy Nazarov, and Praptpapol Suwanbang on The Burma Conspiracy (2011). He capped off the year working on Elephant White (2011), with award winning talent Prachya Pinkaew (director of Ong Bak), Djimon Hounsou, and Kevin Bacon. He worked alongside Jirantanin Pitakporntrakul, who has the lead female role, as her drama and dialect coach. After a long-term career based in Asia, Erich relocated back to California in 2012 and to work on numerous films and TV projects including the feature film A Leap to Take (2013), with award-winning independent filmmaker Rob Nilsson. The experimental film debuted at the Moscow International Film Festival. He was also involved in the award-winning short film EXpatZ (2013) and the feature A Bridge to Border (2014) where he produced as well as took on the role of Ricky Bobineau, the lead agent on the trail of a potential terrorist attack in San Francisco.