War Machine - Actor Biographies

Ben was raised in a mix of two cultures; his mother is French and his father American. He grew up in Paris, but has always attended an American school, so he speaks perfect French and English. From a very young age he has always been involved in some form of art or performance, from drawing to acting, singing, and playing the piano. His interest in music and acting as a child merged into a focus on musical theatre during his school years, earning him a supporting role in The Music Man and major roles in Noah’s Ark the Opera, Little Mary Sunshine, The Wolfman’s Wedding, and The Wizard of Oz. After a recent 6 week acting program at Carnegie Mellon University and a week-long intense acting program with the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford upon Avon, he has found himself drawn away from musicals towards straight acting roles. He has recently been in stage productions of The Yellow Boat, he played the role of Lenny in Of Mice and Men, was in several scenes from the play Angels in America and the main character of a contemporary play that previewed in Paris. His lead role of JJ in War Machine is his first performance on film.

He is currently in his Sophomore year at Ithaca College, focusing his studies on Acting and Anthropology. You can contact Ben via his email address: bigbenhunter@hotmail.com

Derrick was born in North Carolina (USA) on October 24, 1974, but after his family moved to Indiana he caught the acting bug and was very active in high school theater. He spent his junior year of college abroad in Strasbourg, France, before graduating from Indiana University (Bloomington) with a French and West European Studies degree. He also added minors in German, Poly Sci and History.

Of mixed European background, Derrick spent the next several years finding himself and his roots living in such European cities as Paris, Strasbourg, and Graz (Austria). He carried his love of cinema and acting with him to Paris, where his professional acting debut was in Napoléon, a TV mini-series with French celebrity Christian Clavier. Soon thereafter, Derrick landed his first supporting role in the big budget European sci-fi film Immortel Ad Vitam. The film's director, Enki Bilal, transformed Derrick into a CGI character named Jonas. Not your typical feature film debut for an American.

He speaks nearly perfect French (and very good German). While he enjoyed living in Europe, he has always considered the United States home. He moved to southern California in January 2004, and he can be contacted via his web site: http://www.derrickbrenner.com

Steve has been based in Paris for the past 11 years and has kept himself quite busy as an actor and singer. He has his own band, Steve Croce and the Swing Set, a jazz standards quintet, as well as performing as lead singer in Babyhead Tom (rock & roll) and The French Connection Band, a "Blues Brothers" cover band in which he plays Joliet Jake.

He has performed in musical stage comedies for many years with Company Oz and is currently involved with Come Together - The Beatles Project, directed by Barbara Welser-Scaff. He has also recently worked with Bob Meyer and Judith Burnett on the stage adaptation of Raymond Carver's So Much Water So Close to Home and Richard Drakin on Jack and Neal Angels Still Falling. His experience in film includes Patrick Timsit's L'Americain, also Embrace Qui Vous Voudrez by Michel Blanc, J'ai Rentrée Dans Ma Maison by Manuel d'Oliverita, Oui, Mais by Yves Lavardier, and Love Me by Laetitia Massou. He also lends his voice to various cartoons, video games, and frequently works as a voice actor on dubs of French films into English.

You can contact Steve via his email address: stephencroce@hotmail.com

War Machine - actor Kartik Singh

Kartik Singh as Fry

Born in Middle America (100 miles west of Kansas City) to Indian parents, Kartik Singh grew up steeped in two divergent cultures. Always interested in the arts, his high school and university years were spent performing as a tenor in the Kansas City All-Metro Choir, and in musicals like Grease and Hello Dolly. He also played Harker in Dracula and was in the ensemble cast of A.R. Gurney's The Dining Room in Washington DC, directed by Caleen Jennings. During his years in Washington, Kartik had a life-changing week as an extra on the set of Robert Zemeckis' Forrest Gump. (He can be spotted among the many hippies in the sequence shot at the Reflecting Pool). Being able to watch Zemeckis, Tom Hanks, and Robin Wright at work was an inspiration for Kartik, and he decided then to spend his life making films. In the mid-1990's, he received a scholarship to study film and acting in Paris at the Sorbonne. Today, Kartik is a working actor in Paris, represented by prestigious agent Victoria Marchal. He has been seen recently acting in short films in French (Les Anges malicieux, Jeux de mains) and in Hindi (Bhai Bhai). Kartik is also the director of 5 shorts, including Good News, Bad News, which won first prize in the Arte Rush Festival in 2001. He is currently working on his next film Ayesha, a family story of 3 generations of women in Paris.

You can contact Kartik via his email address: kartix@hotmail.com