Saroya Renee Whatley

Author, How To Earn Quick Cash As a Movie Extra

our price: $3.99

Saroya is originally from South Pasadena, California, a suburb twenty minutes outside of downtown Los Angeles. At age five, she began working with veteran Hollywood acting coach Chambers Stevens and quickly met with success. After a Warner Brothers interstitial and a few independent films, she won entrance into the prestigious college preparatory school for girls, Westridge, and decided to focus on her academics.

Throughout her secondary education, she participated in many stage productions: Oscar Wilde's "The Canterville Ghost" as a member of the ensemble, then Anouilh's "Antigone" as a member of the chorus before moving into leading roles. Her first principle role was John Proctor in "The Crucible", then Titania in "A Midsummer Night's Dream." In Blackbox Theater, Saroya thoroughly enjoyed ensemble work, with principal roles such as Hiro, the Japanese elder in "The Theory of Everything". Besides drama, Saroya also developed her abilities in dance performance as a team leader, where she trained in jazz, hip hop, ballet, and modern dance styles including Bollywood. After graduation from Westridge, she joined the Class of 2011 at Stanford University.

In her freshman and sophomore years, Saroya was a member and captain of Dil Se, Stanford's Hindi Film Dance Team. In fall of her junior year, she decided to join the staff of Charity Fashion Show, a student group that hosted the largest fashion show on the West Coast, specifically to hone her production and management skills. In the spring, Saroya made use of her three years of Japanese language classes to study abroad in Kyoto, and then intern for the summer at JACSES, an enviromental NGO, in Tokyo.

In her senior year at Stanford, Saroya undertook a number of creative projects. She began her own dance ensemble, Sanchali, dedicated to combining various forms of dance, such as jazz, hip-hop, Bollywood, and Bhangra. She also returned to the Charity Fashion Show staff, this time as a director. The stage beckoned again with an opportunity to work in the intimacy of a BlackBox theater, in the play "No Child..." a one-woman show that focuses on the condition of the educational system in the US. In the spring, she also won the role of Undine in a production of "Fabulation; Or the Re-education of Undine", a riches to rags story of an African American woman who rediscovers herself as she struggles to come to terms with her past mistakes.

In June 2011, Saroya graduated from Stanford University with a B.A. in International Relations with a specialization in Comparative Culture and Society as well as an area concentration in Asia (specifically Japan and India). She currently lives in Los Angeles, working as an actress, and recently filmed two short films and currently stars in a web series.

How To Earn Quick Cash as a Movie Extra!

her most recent contribution, is an outgrowth of her combined talents and interests.