Ben Gorman(I)
- Actor
- Make-Up Department
Ben was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the last of four siblings, his birth necessitating the family's move to a larger house, in Shaker Heights. His first (remembered) exposure to theater was in 3rd grade, where his class wrote, designed, and performed their own operetta, a barnyard tale in which he played the Rooster. He had the first line, which he still remembers: "Cock-a-doodle-doo! Cock-a-doodle-doo! The day's begun for you! Get up, get up, you sleepy-heads! Get up, get out of your soft, straw beds!" Though he remains proud of his stage debut, his siblings will never let him live it down, and he has a lifelong aversion to red tights.
At age ten, Ben moved with his family to California, where he lived for the next 26 years, moving gradually northward from San Diego County to San Francisco. He performed memorably in several plays in high school, including The Rainmaker, Charley's Aunt, and The Importance of Being Earnest. Along with his friends, Ben also took an interest in filmmaking, co-creating numerous Super 8 (and Single-8!) films to delight family and friends. He went on to study filmmaking at U.C. Santa Cruz, majoring in Theater Arts with an emphasis in Film, and graduating in the first UCSC class to have the Banana Slug as its officially designated mascot.
Ben's initial interest in Shakespeare can be credited to his late father, but blossomed when he was a sophomore in high school and was cast, after county-wide auditions, in a professional production of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the former Marquis Public Theatre on India Street, directed by the late Eric Christmas and produced by graduate students from San Diego State University. Shakespeare continues to be one of his chief interests, but his love of filmmaking took him to Los Angeles in 1988, where a lucky connection landed him work on Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, arguably the worst product of the Star Trek franchise. Ben was a lab assistant for Richard Snell Makeup Designs, and personally made injection-molded Spock & Sybok ears. He also worked on Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, also with Richard Snell Designs, but was not credited as his work was entirely administrative.
As an actor, Ben has appeared on stages ranging from California to Arizona to Minnesota to Wisconsin, and occasionally in short films, such as the Columbus, Ohio, 48 Hour Film Festival entry for 2015, The Last Con. Ben has also toured the eastern half of the continental U.S. with the American Shakespeare Center as well as performed at their beautiful reproduction Blackfriars Theater in Staunton, VA.
At age ten, Ben moved with his family to California, where he lived for the next 26 years, moving gradually northward from San Diego County to San Francisco. He performed memorably in several plays in high school, including The Rainmaker, Charley's Aunt, and The Importance of Being Earnest. Along with his friends, Ben also took an interest in filmmaking, co-creating numerous Super 8 (and Single-8!) films to delight family and friends. He went on to study filmmaking at U.C. Santa Cruz, majoring in Theater Arts with an emphasis in Film, and graduating in the first UCSC class to have the Banana Slug as its officially designated mascot.
Ben's initial interest in Shakespeare can be credited to his late father, but blossomed when he was a sophomore in high school and was cast, after county-wide auditions, in a professional production of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the former Marquis Public Theatre on India Street, directed by the late Eric Christmas and produced by graduate students from San Diego State University. Shakespeare continues to be one of his chief interests, but his love of filmmaking took him to Los Angeles in 1988, where a lucky connection landed him work on Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, arguably the worst product of the Star Trek franchise. Ben was a lab assistant for Richard Snell Makeup Designs, and personally made injection-molded Spock & Sybok ears. He also worked on Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, also with Richard Snell Designs, but was not credited as his work was entirely administrative.
As an actor, Ben has appeared on stages ranging from California to Arizona to Minnesota to Wisconsin, and occasionally in short films, such as the Columbus, Ohio, 48 Hour Film Festival entry for 2015, The Last Con. Ben has also toured the eastern half of the continental U.S. with the American Shakespeare Center as well as performed at their beautiful reproduction Blackfriars Theater in Staunton, VA.