Artesia, CA (near LA):
Lunch with my Emory classmate Rafiq Batcha (MBA 05) and his friends Garrett (an actor & stage partner) and Rufus (a Hollywood producer and friend of Rafiq’s back in Atlanta).
Rafiq and I never took any classes together at Emory since he is my upperclassman. Instead, many of my classmates and I got to know Rafiq through all the comedy videos he directed, acted and produced (6 in total) such as our MBA orientation and MBA interview videos.
The shorts he created were exceptionally funny. He recruited many of our MBA 05 students and Emory administration as the cast in his shorts providing us with laughs and entertainment seeing the amateur acting skills of our fellow friends in action. I’m sure we can dig up the videos on YouTube (Hint. Hint. Search: “Rafiq Batcha Emory”).
After graduation from b-school, Rafiq found a “real job” (adulting). But he was already hooked after his acting and directing debut at Emory. So he pursued acting, directing and writing on the side in Atlanta. And at some point, he decided to make the plunge to make Acting his full-time profession: pack his bags and move to Los Angeles.
He works as a freelance Salesforce consultant on the side to pay the bills. But Acting is his true calling. An actor / writer is who he is.
Rafiq and I met up in Pasadena when he and his wife first moved to SoCal nearly 10 years ago. I’m glad to see he’s making headway in his Acting career, slowly breaking into bigger roles.
I asked Rafiq what’s the best advice he can give an aspiring actor / actress trying to get into Hollywood. He said to take Acting classes. In Acting classes, you learn not just Acting skills, but you network with people in the industry and get leads on where to find the next Acting job for your career.
One of Rafiq’s favorite class is Advanced Improv. He says the skills you learn even in basic improv are extremely valuable to a person in any career.
Fun times. Hopefully, we’ll see Rafiq hit it big in the box office in 2022.
