RootsTech Connect 2021 Welcomes Keynote Speaker Erick Avari

RootsTech Connect 2021 will be here before you know it, and you won’t want to miss it! The lineup of outstanding keynote speakers this year includes Erick Avari, a 30-year veteran of television, film, and stage.

RootsTech Connect takes place on 25–27 February 2021. If you haven’t registered yet, sign up for free!

A man in priestly robes stands just out of sight as Jesus and His disciples prepare to leave the city. The man is torn; he has been invited to join them on the journey of a lifetime, yet he feels compelling loyalties to his family and religious community. With anguish in every line of his expression and posture, Nicodemus sobs quietly as chooses to stay behind.

If you wept with Nicodemus at his heart-wrenching dilemma, you’ve been touched by the masterful acting of Erick Avari. The role of Nicodemus on the popular series The Chosen is one of his latest.

Destined for Drama

Erick Avari was born Nariman Eruch Avari in 1952 in Darjeeling, India. You might say that acting is in his genes. His father was Eruch Avari, the proprietor of two local movie theaters. His great-grandfather Jamshedji Framji Madan is considered one of the pioneers of Indian cinema.

It didn’t take long for Avari to go from watching movies to being in them himself. His first role came in his teens when he was in the Satyajit Ray film Kanchenjungha. After attending the North Point School in Darjeeling, he went to the College of Charleston in South Carolina in the United States, where he studied acting. Soon his talent was recognized, and he began securing roles on stage, on the silver screen, and on TV.

Versatile

Look at a list of Avari’s acting credits, and you realize it might be shorter to list what he hasn’t been in. Besides those productions already mentioned, here’s a brief sampling:

Stage

Two Gentlemen of Verona
The Merchant of Venice
Bunty Berman Presents …
Rasputin
A Map of the World
Screens

Television

Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
Heroes
Hope and Faith
Law and Order
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Murder, She Wrote
NYPD Blue
Dragnet
Stargate

Film

The Beast
The Mummy
Outbreak on a Plane
Home Alone 4
Mr. Deeds
Master of Disguise
McHale’s Navy
The 13th Warrior
The Glass House

And those are just a few.

Avari’s versatility goes beyond roles in a wide variety of genres. Besides English, he speaks several Indian languages, including Hindi, Bengali, and Gujarati. His talents and ethnic awareness have made him an ideal choice to portray characters of many ethnicities (besides his native Indian), including British, Greek, Eygptian, Libyan, and Jewish—not to mention his stints as a Klingon and a Bajoran on Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Ninerespectively.

Connecting with Fans

With Avari’s broad exposure and exceptional talent, it is not surprising that fans connect with him. Avari relates how he was booked for a fan convention in September 2001, and then 9/11 happened three days earlier. Despite the tragedy, the convention organizers chose not to cancel, so Avari attended.

Looking back on the experience, he reminisced in an interview: “It was the first time I’d ever gone out to any of these [conventions], had any of that interaction with fans, and it was such a powerful coming together under adverse conditions. I really admired the spirit of the fans. They weren’t going to let something like this douse their enthusiasm. It was a magical experience.”

He went on to say, “As an actor, you tend to get a little jaded and cynical about the work, and then when you meet people and you see how it’s touched them, you realize (a) what a powerful medium it is, and (b) it’s something you have to use with prudence and a sense of responsibility. Again, it is a very, very powerful medium, and it influences people very strongly. You need to have a sense of responsibility about it, and it’s one that I’ve taken to heart.”

Avari will certainly get a warm welcome from RootsTech attendees who appreciate his wealth of experience and talent. Register for RootsTech Connect today!