Kavi Raz

Kavi Raz (born 13 August 1953 in Punjab, India) is an Indian‑born British actor, writer, director and producer whose career spans over four decades of groundbreaking work in theatre, television and film. Raised in a Sikh family, he spent his early childhood in a small Punjabi village before his father’s service in the British Indian Army earned the family a work visa that brought them to Leamington Spa, United Kingdom when he was eleven, and later to California to join his older sister. Raz pursued higher education in the San Francisco Bay Area, earning a bachelor’s degree in engineering followed by a master’s in industrial engineering, yet his passion for the performing arts soon eclipsed his technical training. In the mid‑1970s he co‑founded the Wandering Players’ Theatre Company, the first professional South Asian theatre troupe in the United States, and served as its artistic director, introducing Western audiences to works by Rabindranath Tagore, Sakharam Binder and Shakuntala among others. His move to Hollywood marked a historic breakthrough: Raz became the first actor of South Asian descent to secure a regular role on an American network series, portraying Dr. VJ Kochar on St Elsewhere during its first two seasons and later appearing recurringly. Over the years he amassed credits in more than two hundred productions, ranging from guest spots on The A‑Team, MASH* and Star Trek: The Next Generation to film roles in Pet Sematary and Big River. As a filmmaker, he founded K. R. Films Hollywood in 1978, produced the television variety series Lehren, and built the state‑of‑the‑art K. R. Studios in Granada Hills, which today serves a vibrant community of award‑winning creators. His later works include the post‑9/11 drama The Gold Bracelet and the 2017 feature The Black Prince, underscoring a lifelong commitment to telling diverse stories and expanding representation for South Asian artists in Western media.