Rishan Dhamija

Logline: Edwin Thomas, an Indian immigrant, believes he has what it takes to become the first brown Harrison Ford. Now all he has to do is beat the US immigration system and an industry inflaming his bubbling identity crisis. And he only has one year to do it before he faces the insides of a detention cage.

Bio: Rishan Dhamija is an Actor/Writer based out of NY, originally hailing from New Delhi, India. After graduating in 2019 with an MFA in Acting from UNC where he read all of zero plays with Indians in them, he decided to go to NYU to pursue his second MFA in Dramatic Writing, in hopes of creating more authentic South Asian content. Rishan’s parents were ecstatic to hear that after he graduated drama school, he would get to play Doctors or IT professionals on TV. Something they couldn’t get him to do in real life. Rishan didn’t want to give them the satisfaction. To that end, he is currently developing a TV Pilot with Midnight Oil Collective- A Yale Based Arts incubator, that focuses on themes of immigration and diversity in Hollywood. At NYU he recently workshopped his play “Waiting for Shams”- under the tutelage of Pulitzer prize winner Suzan Lori Parks and Oskar Eustis (The Public Theatre, NY). He is eagerly waiting to wrap up his Thesis under Obie award winning playwright Lucas Hnath and graduate in May.