Rashaan Nall | |
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Born | February 25, 1980 Altadena, California, U.S. |
Nationality | American |
Other names | Harvey Arnal |
Occupation | Actor, Editor, Writer and Director |
Years active | 1995–present |
Rashaan Harvey Nall (born February 25, 1980) is an American writer, director, screenwriter and actor of stage and screen.
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Nall was born at Dominguez Hills Hospital in a community in the greater Los Angeles area. Rashaan literally raised on the border of Altadena and Pasadena, California is the youngest son of four brothers. He attended Luther Burbank Elementary School, South Pasadena Junior High and South Pasadena High School where Rashaan played starting tailback for the Tigers football team. Rashaan later attended John Muir High before bouncing between John Muir and Los Angeles High school for the Arts After graduating from Arts high, Rashaan attended California State University Northridge.
Rashaan Harvey Nall began working professionally at age 14 and later landed a Regular role as Jared Moore on the television series Social Studies, a show centered on the students of a wayward upper crust boarding school. Nall also recurred on the ABC hit series Hangin’ with Mr Cooper, NBC’s Mr. Rhodes, and CBS mystery drama Cracker. He appears in HBO’s Tyson and co-stars in Disney’s Principal Takes Holiday. He also worked on Jon Voight’s directorial debut Tin Soldier, continuing to guest star in Golden Globe nominated series Touched by an Angel, Emmy winning sitcom Sister Sister[1] and Emmy winning dramas such as NYPD Blue[2] and ER.[3]
Nall etched his own brand of edgy comedy in memorable roles as Stray Bullet in the 5th installment of the cult classic Leprechaun series, or the unassuming anti-hero Floyd in Snipes as well as hard bodied meathead Ronald in The Wash. Nall earned a reputation for intensive study character work, on the gritty award winning series The Shield and in films such as VH1’s Play'd: A Hip Hop Story, Starring opposite multi- Grammy Award winner Toni Braxton. Nall eventually took on the role of chiseled bodied barber Walt Powell on Paramount Television’s Cuts which also co-starred Shannon Elizabeth.
Nall made a comedic departure with his recurring role as property manager and confidant Darryl on the critically acclaimed IFC series “The Minor Accomplishments of Jackie Woodman”.
Upon returning from living in Lima, Peru, Rashaan immediately began working on Spoken Word with writer/director Ulee's Gold and Victor Nunez. After completing Spoken Word, Nall traveled to Quetzaltenango, Guatemala to live and study Spanish at the Miguel Asturias School of Spanish and returned to Write/Direct/Produce and Edit, short documentary Mi Gusta Guatemala, short film Menage’ Noir and also Spaghetti Western satire “Jesus Lovin Buddhist” . Nall writes, directs, edits and paints under the pseudonyms, R. Nall, Ra and Harvey Arnal.
Rashaan is one of the original poets of Los Angeles’ "The Poetry Lounge”. His screenplay The Pyn was a screenwriting finalist for HBO sponsored Urbanworld film festival in 2007. Nall also penned both screenplays Menage’ Noir and Jesus Lovin’ Buddhist, for which he wrote, produced, directed, and edited.
Nall’s first directorial work was theatrical re-telling of Sam Shepard’s first act of Geography of a Horse Dreamer at Los Angeles’s State playhouse. Nall also directed Spaghetti Western satire “Jesus Lovin Buddhist”.
Nall first began editing by sneaking into the editing bay of Otis College of Art and Design with a roommate and Otis student. Nall’s first official short was entitled film Menage’ Noir starring Crank 2’s Julanne Chidi Hill and Amour Infinity’s Jamie Burton Oare. Rashaan edited his rethinking of a spaghetti western “Jesus Lovin Buddhist” a satirical film exploring religion and race in a small town bar. The film stars Dominic Bogart, Blake Robbins and Julanne Chidi Hill.
Rashaan is from Christian Baptist background and practices Kundalini yoga and Vipassana meditation under S.A Goenka.
Rashaan volunteered as an assistant teacher at Marvin Avenue Elementary School with the nonprofit organization Equal Opportunity Productions (EqOp), an arts organization. Rashaan also served a three year stint as assistant teacher at Faith acting studios and assistant teacher at All About Kids Acting conservatory.