Pia Shah

Biography:  Pia Shah said her own Biography........ I was born in Chatham, New Jersey to Indian immigrant parents. When I was five years old, I moved to Bombay with my family, where I attended the Bombay Scottish School. I studied bharatnatyam, ballet, elocution and horseback riding. I also studied the harmonium. At age 10, I returned to New Jersey, where I exchanged a fast-paced, urban, Indian, life for a quiet, suburban, American one. I took up the violin and joined the debate team. After middle school, I moved back to Bombay for eighth and ninth grade. And then I moved once more, at fifteen, back to New Jersey. As a kid, I wanted to be many different things including a foreign diplomat, a human rights lawyer, and a chef. Upon graduating from Chatham High School, I studied International Studies at The Johns Hopkins University where I befriended people from all walks of life. I studied Mandarin Chinese and spent a summer abroad studing at Peking University in Beijing. In college, my interests spread to music, social work, women\'s studies and film. I graduated, Phi Beta Kappa with double honors, and received the award for best senior thesis for my exploration of international rave cultures. Although I had never dreamed of being an actor when I was a small child, in some ways it was always in the depths of myself and upon graduation, it\'s no surprise that I found and settled on acting as my beloved way of life...one that seemed to encompass every aspect of living. I began a serious study of acting under Francine Landes, one of Fred Kareman\'s students, at the American Conservatory Theatre (A.C.T.) in San Francisco. I then continued this training with Suzanne Esper (who studied with Sandy Meisner) at the William Esper Studio in Manhattan. I enjoy trying on different roles and characteristics and using my exposure to many different cultures to create my own expression and interpretation of human behavior and experience. I have simultaneously been an avid supporter of independent filmmakers, both narrative and documentary, and have acted in mainly independent films. I had the good fortune of spending a brief period as the Media Fund Director at the Center for Asian American Media in San Francisco, where I oversaw a federal grants program for films geared towards public television (PBS) from under-represented communties. During my time there, some films that I helped to get off the ground were: Cats of Mirikitani (Tribeca, Tokyo Intl. Film Festivals), A Dream in Doubt (IFP Market), Project Kashmir (Tribeca Intl. Film Festival) A Fishbowl and some Dimes (Hawaii Intl. Film Festival) and Sentenced Home (Seattle Intl. Film Festival).