Sandeep Parikh

Sandeep Parikh (born July 23, 1980, in Goffstown, New Hampshire) is an Indian-American writer, director, actor and producer of comedy currently residing in Silver Lake in Los Angeles, California. He is best known for his co-starring role as Zaboo on the YouTube-based web series "The Guild", which won the Greenlight Award for Best Original Digital Series Production at the South by Southwest festivals, [http://www.newsobserver.com/1566/story/995780.html "The Guild" and "Knock Off" Take Top Honors at the Greenlight Awards,"] "News & Observer", March 11, 2008. Retrieved 2008-03-20.] the YouTube Award for Best Series,Elana Schor. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar/21/usa.youtube?gusrc=rss&feed=worldnews "YouTube awards celebrate buffalo battles and bouncing baby,"] "The Guardian" (United Kingdom), March 21, 2008. Retrieved 2008-03-22.] [http://www.youtube.com/ytawards07winners Winners, 2007 YouTube Video Awards] , March 21, 2008. Retrieved 2008-03-21] [http://www.anchorcove.net/index.php?option=com_myblog&show=Ita-s-Official.-The-Guild-is-the-Best-Web-Series..html&Itemid=51 It's Official. The Guild is the Best Web Series] ,March 21, 2008. Retrieved 2008-03-26.] and the Yahoo! Video Award for Best Series. [http://www.yvideoblog.com/blog/2008/03/21/the-yahoo-video-awards-the-results/ The Yahoo! Video Awards: The Results!] , March 21, 2008. Retrieved 2008-03-21.] He is the founder of Effinfunny.com, a comedy video site focusing on alternative stand up comedy and the creation of original web series like "The Legend of Neil" (for Comedy Central and AtomFilms), which are currently available online.

Background

Parikh was born and raised in Goffstown, New Hampshire, by two immigrant Indian parents and two older brothers, Rajiv and Sanjiv.fact|date=May 2008 He was a gymnast since the age of 4 and competed nationally in all six male events until 18.fact|date=May 2008

Parikh went to Goffstown High School in New Hampshire and then went to Brown University where he received an A.B. in Computer Science with Honors in Creative Writing.

Career

Parikh began improvising and writing sketches for the short lived comedy troupe The Village Idiots at Brown University. In 2001 he wrote and produced his first film, "The Courier Dodge", which was a finalist at the Ivy Film Festival for Best Comedy. He was awarded the Capstone at Brown for writing the feature screenplay Chess Wesley. After graduating, he lived in Brooklyn, New York, and wrote plays, one of which was produced at the Lower Tenement Theatre in Manhattan. Unable to ignore the calls of Hollywood, he moved to Los Angeles in 2004 and wrote, directed, and produced an independent television pilot called "The Good Guys". This landed him his agent at the William Morris Agency. In July of 2006 he founded Effinfunny.com where he produced stand up comedy shows in LA, and edited the best bits into digestible clips for the Internet and created profiles for the comedians for promotional purposes. In April, 2007, after drinking with his roommate and watching him play the original NES version of "Zelda", Parikh wrote a sketch parodying the gameplay. That sketch after some refinement with co-writer and eventual star Tony Janning became "The Legend of Neil". The first episode aired on YouTube and garnered a quarter of a million hits. Sandeep then partnered with Comedy Central and Atom.com to produce five more episodes which are being released one by one on Atom.com and LegendOfNeil.com [http://www.atom.com/channel/channel_legend_of_neil/?tab=channels] .

Other sketches

Parikh plays the role of "Zaboo" in "The Guild", an Internet sitcom about a group of online role playing game members whose guild meets in real life for the first time after Zaboo turns up on the doorstep of fellow gamer "Codex," whom he has tracked down to give her the blue roses he crafted for her.

Parikh created, co-wrote, and directed "The Legend of Neil" about a real world slacker who gets sucked into "The Legend of Zelda" and has to fight his way out with a wooden sword and no discernible skills. He wrote the 4 minute short as a web pilot for VH1's Acceptable.tv. The show was cancelled before the Legend of Neil was eligible to air but it won best Sci Fi Fantasy Web Pilot for the Acceptable.tv podcast. The show was then a Youtube sensation amassing over a quarter million hits. It was soon picked up by Comedy Central for 5 more webisodes that were released in July 2008 on Atom.com.

He also co-wrote, directed, and acted in "Raptor", which had a two-episode run on Channel101.com, in which he plays a man who plays foosball against his co-worker Raymond, a velociraptor. Parikh co-wrote, directed, and starred as Tom Selleck in "The Blood Oath of Three Men and a Baby" which likewise had a two-episode run on Channel101.

Notes

External links

* [http://www.legendofneil.com/ The Legend of Neil Videos]
* [http://effinfunny.com/index.php/ effinfunny.com]
* [http://www.watchtheguild.com/ watchtheguild.com]
* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2321339/ Sandeep's imdb page]