Zoltan Barabas

Zoltán Barabás is a Canadian and EU (Hungarian) citizen, born in Sweden. His father, originally from Hungary (by way of Australia), is a Mechanical Design Engineer. His Swedish mother trained as a nurse. Zoltán has one 'leftover' brother, an artist and poet living in Calgary, Canada. Two younger brothers have since passed away. Zoltán's Hungarian roots include a long line of artists and actors. At the age of seven (in 1972), his family immigrated to Canada. After a three-month visit to Hungary, an 11 day North Atlantic crossing, and traveling across Canada in a car and trailer, his family settled in Vancouver. By 1975, Zoltán's family moved to Calgary, where he spent the next decade, going to school, playing competitive sports (soccer and baseball) and attending Sea Cadets. Giving up his original dream to be an Architect, Zoltán joined the Canadian Navy in 1985 as an officer. He spent the next decade working full-time, accumulating a lot of time at sea as a Navigator, Executive Officer, and finally as a Commanding Officer of small patrol boats. While serving in Vancouver in the mid 1990s, Zoltán left full-time service to pursue a new career as an actor, playwright and filmmaker. He began by making corporate videos. In a short two years, he also wrote, produced and directed two plays, produced a third, and associate produced two independent feature films. In 1995, Zoltán moved to his ancestral homeland of Hungary. He spent six years in Budapest, learning to become an actor and filmmaker. He debuted as an actor with Robin Williams in Jakob the Liar (1999). He also worked with Ben Kingsley, Julian Sands, Asia Argento, Armin Mueller-Stahl and Shawn Wayans & Marlon Wayans. Zoltán served as an Executive Producer on (the Hungarian version of "The Tonight Show") Esti showder Fábry Sándorral (1998). He also wrote, produced and directed a music festival docu-drama, Thend (1999). Zoltán returned to Vancouver in 2002, to continue his development as a filmmaker. He co-produced the award winning film, The Entrance (2006), and wrote, produced and directed a short film, "Shattered."