Biography

Shelley Malil is proud to be from the Indian state of Kerala and a Malayalee, a people known for their comedic take on life. He had dreams of becoming a comedic actor like his idol Bob Hope, whom he first saw on a neighbor's TV set--the only one in the fishing village on the southern tip of India where he was raised. He caught national attention as "Chad", one of the Budweiser "What are you doing?!" guys in Anheuser-Busch's inspired "Whassup?!" commercial spin-off. The clever send-up was voted best Super bowl commercial by a number of trade publications, magazines and entertainment commentators.

Shelley first came to Hollywood in 1995, after a two-year stint at New York's famed American Academy of Dramatic Arts. With less than $1000 to his name and a phone number of a friend of a friend in his pocket, he drove his van west. He asked his mother to make him a roll-away mattress so that he would be able to sleep in his van until he could find room and board. Within three weeks of his arrival he had landed a manager, a guest-star role on FOX's The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. (1993), his SAG card and an apartment. Since then he has worked steadily, appearing in numerous commercials, television shows and films.

Shelley began pursuing his dream of entertaining people on the stages of Big Spring High School, where his leading turns often earned awards in district competitions in Texas, where his family settled after emigrating to the US in 1974. "Chili" and "Animal" were his teenage nicknames. He got a taste of fame during those years when a group of students formed "The Animal Fan Club" because of his popularity in theater and as a disc jockey at a local radio station. After high school, he spent a few seasons performing classic musicals on the Dallas dinner theater circuit until he auditioned for the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He longs to return to the stage, where his turn as "Bottom" in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at the Stella Adler Theatre garnered him a Best Featured Actor nomination at the 1997 Los Angeles Ovation Awards. In his spare time, Shelley takes a Zen-like approach to golf, goes to approximately five films a week, devours motivational books and recently joined the Big Brother Program.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: PR@malil.com

Actor Shelley Malil caught national attention as "Chad", one of the Budweiser "What are you doing?!" guys in Anheuser-Busch's inspired "Whassup?!" commercial spin-off. After the clever send-up was voted best Super bowl commercial by a number of trades, magazines and entertainment commentators, Shelley resurrects "Chad" in another two TV spots. The spotlight helped Shelley score a lead role in FX's dark comedy pilot, Bad News Mr. Swanson (2001), in which he plays "Ashid", best friend to Frank Whaley's "Mr. Swanson".

Shelley first came to Hollywood eight years ago, after a two-year stint at New York's famed American Academy of Dramatic Arts. With $600 to his name and a phone number of a friend of a friend in his pocket, Shelley drove his van West. He had dreams of becoming a comedic actor like his idol Bob Hope, whom he first saw on a neighbor's TV set, the only one in the fishing village on the southern tip of India where he was raised. Within three weeks of his arrival, he had landed a manager, a guest star role on FOX's The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. (1993) and his SAG card. Since that time, Shelley has worked steadily, appearing in such television shows as ER (1994) (in the Emmy-winning episode "Love's Labor Lost"), Seinfeld (1989), two seasons on NYPD Blue (1993), Sabrina, the Teenage Witch (1996), Party of Five (1994), The West Wing (1999) and The Jamie Foxx Show (1996), just to mention a few. In addition, he has worked with director Thomas Schlamme and the incomparable Tracey Ullman in her award-winning HBO series Tracey Takes On... (1996), with James Earl Jones in the feature film The Second Civil War (1997) and with Jeff Daniels and Elizabeth Hurley in the big screen version of My Favorite Martian (1999), directed by Donald Petrie. He also recently starred in Regent's Just Can't Get Enough (2002): The Chippendale's Story, which premiered at the American Film Market, in which he gain 35 lbs. to play the role of "Steve Banerjee", the owner of the Chippendale's Clubs, then Shelley followed that with work on both Collateral Damage (2002) with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Holes (2003) with Henry Winkler under the direction of Andrew Davis.

Shelley began pursuing his dream of entertaining people on the high school stage, where his leading turns often earned awards in district competitions in Texas, where his family settled after emigrating to the U.S. in 1974. "Chili", his teenage nickname, got a taste of the entertainment spotlight during his work in theater and as a disc jockey at a local radio station. After high school, he spent a few seasons performing classic musicals like "Annie, Get Your Gun", "Carnival" and "Showboat" on the Dallas dinner theater circuit until he auditioned for the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and moved to New York City. Shelley longs to return to the stage.

His portrayal as "Bottom" in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at Hollywood's Stella Adler Theatre garnered him a Best Featured Actor nomination at the Los Angeles Ovation Awards. Shelley most recent turn was in "Chaos Theory" at the ArtWallah Festival in Los Angeles where he played both a 63-yr-old and then a 24-yr-old (in a flashback scene) "Mukesh Singh', a professor of English literature. His performance left most of the sold out audience members wondering who the younger actor was. Shelley is proud to be from the Indian state of Kerala and a Malayalee, a people known for their comedic take on life.

In his spare time, Shelley takes a Zen-like approach to golf, goes to approximately five films a week, devours motivational books and recently joined the Big Brother Program. A plaque on his office wall bears Shelley's motto for living "Almost everything we do in life is of no importance, but it is of the utmost importance that we do it" - Mohandas K. Gandhi.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: PR@malil.com