Rao Rampilla

Rao started with a theatre while in High School and then continued with poetic writings. He came from a civil rights movement in India, having sat on a hunger strike until death at the JNU (the National University, New Delhi) for social justice for Dalits in India. Having been expelled after the hunger strike, Rao settled in America and again fought for self-determination for Native Americans (Iroquois, Senecas) in Up State New York. He later became a Senior Legal Adviser at the UN Legal Office and a diplomat with Indonesian Mission to the UN besides working for UNDP. While living in Deep South (Athens, Ga), Rao learned how to listen and talk in a conservative social setting away from his radical politics. That was his best acting school "listen and talk." He wrote poetry sitting before a kerosene lamp everyday in his college years while protesting for separate Andhra movement. He published his poems in a news paper that he created. And that was his "sense memory training.' Rao was excited and thrilled when he became a full-time actor after the events of 9/11/2001 having lost his business project at the WTC. He could have gone back to his lucrative legal and diplomatic career with the United Nations, but something in his heart kept him as an actor. He discovered that acting gives him a safe space to express his radical self, living away from home (India). That's why he continues to embrace and journey on as an actor. He studied with Alan Arkin besides the Juilliard School, the Lee Strasberg Institute, HB Studios, Meisner, learning their methods and techniques. He started with a humble beginning with Kevin Bacon in the VISA SUPERBOWL commercial in 2002 and had done 30 National commercials. Alan Arkin's wife Suzanne Arkin after his training with Alan Arkin commented that Rao is funny. No wonder Sandler picked him up and cast him in THAT'S MY BOY and Rao worked three months on that film in a major supporting role. Recently he was cast in a Warner Brother's film ISN'T IT ROMANTIC in a supporting role. He has a film Gandhi, Untouchables and Me on Amazon, him playing 7 roles. For this, he won an award from an Australian Film Festival and another one from the Dalit Film and Cultural Festival, 2019 (New York). He completed an artistic film AN ACTOR'S JOURNEY exploring his soul searching journey in Europe travelling and shooting for 8 summers. He plans to show it all over the World including the Cannes Film Festival. He recently rewrote some of the Shakespearean monologues and the Charles Dickens prologue to The Tale of Two Cities reflecting on the Covid 19 and the Black Lives Matter movement. He narrated and produced it as a film titled SHAKESPEAREAN, DICKENSONIAN REFLECTIONS ON COVID 19 AND BLACK LIVES MATTER . It's Rao's desire to play a role like Dr. Zhivago and be an activist actor.