Rajiv Shah is an award-winning actor, screenwriter, director and producer whose career has been defined by a rare combination of dramatic craft, emotional intelligence and an ability to move between disciplines in the entertainment industry.

Born in Stanford, California, and shaped by many cultures, Shah grew up between worlds. That outsider's vantage became the root of his craft. As an actor, he is drawn to authority figures, fathers, husbands, protectors and dangerous men whose inner lives complicate their outward strength. As a writer and filmmaker, he works the same territory: family, identity, responsibility, buried history and the human cost of what remains unspoken.

Shah announced himself as a screenwriter with his first script, Run the Tide. It won the Grand Jury Prize for Project Catalyst at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival and was a finalist in Final Draft's Big Break before WME took on the project with some of Hollywood's most accomplished representatives and producers.

For an unknown writer's first screenplay, the path of Run the Tide was extraordinary. The project was championed by WME partner Mike Simpson, whose clients have included Quentin Tarantino and Bong Joon Ho, and packaged by partner Phil Sun, who has represented talent including Michael B. Jordan. It was produced by Academy Award-nominated producer Pilar Savone, a longtime Quentin Tarantino collaborator who was just coming off of producing Django Unchained. Shah was represented by renowned entertainment attorney Danny Passman of Gang, Tyre, Ramer, Brown & Passman, placing him in a professional circle accustomed to developing and protecting some of the industry's most consequential talent.

The screenplay was ultimately produced as a feature starring Taylor Lautner, Constance Zimmer, Kenny Johnson and Johanna Braddy, with Shah serving as screenwriter, co-producer, and appearing in the film. It received domestic distribution through Orion/Momentum and international distribution.

That breakthrough was the start of Shah building a thriving career across acting and filmmaking, continuing to be entrusted with work by accomplished artists and major institutions. He has been commissioned to write for established filmmakers, hired to adapt literary material for Macmillan Publishing, and expanded into directing. His short film Carry Tiger to Mountain was championed by Bob Beitcher of the Motion Picture & Television Fund, where it premiered in recognition of its exploration of aging and caregiving. The film received the Tony Cox Screenwriting Award from Showtime Networks at the Nantucket Film Festival and brought Shah into collaboration with acclaimed actors Denise Grayson, Robert Forster and Harry Northup. Forster, an Academy Award nominee and one of American cinema's most respected character actors, subsequently became a mentor to Shah. His simple advice to "do your best in all things" remains a principle Shah carries into his work today.

As an actor, Shah has developed a body of work distinguished by restraint, emotional depth and a particular affinity for complicated people carrying more than they reveal. His screen work includes Run the Tide, Splash City (Lionsgate), Night Driver opposite Armie Hammer, The Spear Carrier opposite Jim Beaver, Pig Hunt, and numerous independent film and television projects.

On stage, Shah originated roles in two works by Philip Kan Gotanda: Fist of Roses at Campo Santo and Manzanar: An American Story with the Berkeley Symphony. His performance as Trigger Hale in Ellen Geer's The Seagull: Malibu earned him Stage Scene LA's Outstanding Featured Performance recognition, an honor he also received for portraying nineteen different characters in Terrence McNally's A Perfect Ganesh. His stage work spans Theatricum Botanicum, the Magic Theatre, San Jose Stage, ARC, the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre and the Asian American Theater Company. He has trained with Berkeley Repertory Theatre, American Conservatory Theater, Steppenwolf West, the Barrow Group, Chazz Palminteri, and at the Stella Adler Studio. He continues to work professionally across film and Equity theatre.

A member of both SAG-AFTRA and Actors' Equity Association, Shah has also been elected by his peers to serve on the SAG-AFTRA board alongside fellow performers and union leaders including Kathryn Howell and Sean Astin. His relationship to the profession extends beyond individual roles: he has spent his career advocating for artists while continuing to practice the work himself.

Across disciplines, the through-line in Shah's work is unmistakable: interiority, moral complexity and love under pressure.

His latest screenplay, The Silent Ones, continues that exploration—a mystery drama about inherited trauma and the devastating cost of silence. Shah is also developing 808, a Hawaiian street-gang thriller set to star Rena Owen (Once Were Warriors, Moana) and Kenny Johnson (The Shield, S.W.A.T.).

He is an actor and storyteller committed to work with soul, gravity, and love.