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You have to play a long time to be able to play like yourself - Miles Davis

Vaneshran is an independent artist, passionate about using storytelling in its many forms for social justice and transformation. He is an actor, musician, screen and playwright, a visual artist and designer, a gourmet and martial artist, always keen to master a new skill, vocabulary or discipline.

Vaneshran graduated with a Master's degree from the University of Cape Town and Columbia University in New York, submitting his thesis on Consciousness in Performance. He's been a Ford International Fellowship Program Fellow since 2007 and a Fulbright Scholar since 2013 (in residence at St Francis College, New York).

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A veteran of the South African and International independent film scene, Vaneshran is also a filmmaker in his own right with the independent offbeat feature film 'Actorholic' to his credit as writer, producer and star amongst a host of other local and international titles and projects. He is well-loved for his work in South African TV, particularly in Etv’s  SOS, where he graduated to writing and directing for the popular show.

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Vaneshran has played the part of parts - Hamlet - for the Royal Shakespeare Company in England under the direction of Dame Janet Suzman - a unique portrayal which has been immortalised on the covers of ‘Hamlet’ as published by Cambridge University press and the back cover of the Bedford Shakespeare as well as being selected as 1 of 45 Hamlets by the revered theatre critic, Michael Billington. In South Africa he has become the very image of Othello, gracing the cover of the Oxford University press edition of the play for nearly 10 years. Equal to his love of the classics is his love of collaboration and experimentation which has seen him produce, pen and perform in devised pieces, multimedia, site-specific, musical and physical performance of all kinds from 1996 until present along with the traditional media. 

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