Walter Alza (Get Rich or Die Tryin’, Metropia, At the Hotel), 8 time Award Winner Artist/Actor/Director/Writer/Producer/Acting Coach. Walter has taught hundreds of actors for years in class and  in private sessions at Alza Acting STudio and at Equity Showcase.  He teaches all over Ontario and overseas giving conferences and workshops and has been invited as a guest speaker and moderator at the Toronto  Actra Conference and various Film Festivals and Was part of the Actra diversity committee.  Walter Alza is one of the few coaches in Ontario that not only he is a working actor but also writes directs and produces and uses most of his students in his projects as long as the actor fits the part.

Walter Alza (Get Rich or Die Tryin’, Metropia, Gangster Exchange) was introduced to the world of entertainment at the early age of five. After moving to Canada to further his career, Alza has earned over 250 hours of screen time as well as more than 40 films, television and theatrical credits to his name. However, while Alza is mostly known for his Leading and Character work, he is also an emerging Canadian director. His first film Redemption, Tears and Trains, garnered him critical acclaim from the media. Since then Alza has created his own production company which enables him to write/produce and direct films that address the ethnic diversity of the Canadian voice, allowing it to be heard at the global level. Walter has won the Reel World Trailblazer Award and The City of Toronto Award: prestigious and exciting honors exemplary of his hard work, determination, perseverance and recognition as a leading male actor and artist. Walter also produces and teaches.

When directing One of his most recent films, Pay In Full which he wrote and directed, has recently earned distribution rights in Canada and his latest project, Clive Houston We Have a Problem is doing the festival circuit.

As well Walter has another film ready to do the festival circuit this year, the dramatic Thriller Open Your Eyes Katarina.

Pay In Full will also be turned into a series. Walter is also in negotiations to appear in Sidney Fuiries (Superman 4) Next Film and with Daniel Craig and Jim Sheridan in Dream House.

Walter Alza is known for his Leading and Character work, his knack for picking up accents and his ability to effortlessly portray both drama and comedy within his work.  According to CTV E-Talk Daily, “Walter is Canada’s very own bad boy.” This stems from his portrayal of a vicious Colombian gangster Raoul in the drama Get Rich or Die Tryin’ with 50 Cent and Academy Award nominee director Jim Sheridan, while Star TV called Alza a “scene stealer” for the same role. Another part that got the media and the public’s attention was his supporting role as the eccentric Russian waiter named Slavic in the CBC Series At The Hotel with director  Ken Finkleman, co-starring Don Mackellar (Blind) and Carlo Rota (24). John Doyle from The Globe & Mail said,"Walter Alza is delicious as the testosterone - driven, boorish waiter "Slavic" in At The Hotel.”  Meanwhile, Alza can still be seen nightly on OMNI TV playing the suave ladies man, Andreas Maradona, in the award winning Toronto TV show Metropia. And most recently you can catch Walter as the Funny/Edgy Serbian Sasha in the multiple awards winning feature film Gangsters Exchange playing in theatres in the US and on Rogers pay per view and Bell Express Vu.

During his 20 years in the industry, it comes as no surprise that he has worked with some of the biggest names in the industry in darma with some of he funnies actors in our globe. He was directed by John Candy in Hostage for a Day (1994), played the hot blooded crooked cop in Direct Action directed by Sidney Furie (Superman 4) and starring Doplh Ludgren (Rocky IV), and made use of his many accents portraying three characters in the film Three and a Half; the homophobic Serbian Igor along side Mama Mia Miss Hoffman, the silent construction worker and an Indian man, in this film Alza again received rave reviews from The Sun, Liz Brawn: Walter Gives a Powerful  Performance. Other credits include; The Hidden Room (1993) Co-Starring Catharine O’Hara (Home Alone) and Nick Campbell (Robocop); FX the series co-starring Michael Ironside (Terminator Salvation); a junkie in the series Doc Starring Billie Ray Sirus. He was directed in The Stupids, by John Landis (the Blues Brothers, and Michael Jackson Thriller) with Tom Arnold and worked alongside Lesley Nelsen playing his Assistant in Rent a Kid. You have seen him may times in Due South with Paul Gross and Callum Keith Rennie (Memento) and Alza also changed his appearance for a cameo in The Joe Torre Story sharing the screen with Robert Loggia (Scarface) and Paul Sorvino (Good fellows). Alza has also shared his voice in dozens of films and TV shows including the highly acclaimed feature film Requiem for a Dream, starring Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly and Marlon Wayans, directed by Darren Aronofsky. And finally he did the voice for the award winning documentary In Search of a Dream.

When Alza is not busy acting, directing or writing he is either running his production company Alza44Films

ABOUT ALZA 44FILMS : was conceived by award winner actor/filmmaker Walter Alza in order to create a wide range of projects using different media that allow us to produce the films we care for. To tell stories that matter, tales that will take us away from our busy life. Tales that will entertaining as well as educate us. We believe in creative collective collaboration. ALZA 44FILMS is a unique film and video and new media production house. We strive to bridge the gap between ethnic diversity and multitalented Canadian voices to be accepted on a universal level. Each and every story that

ALZA 44FILMS develops we do it with unique vision and purpose. All our films are designed and market to create profit for all our partners. to find out more about our unique opportunities please contact us directly.

Or working in his acting studio. Here he offers classes on craft, acting on camera and numerous workshops with some of the best casting directors in the city. He has such a tremendous passion for coaching other actors that he has seen many of his students become successful in their own right. They have gone on to star in films, plays, musicals and even write their own scripts that have been produced. Alza is so proud of the development of some of his actors, that usually when he goes to cast any of the films that he is involved in he ends up casting them. Believing in creative collective collaboration, he doesn’t just preach it, he lives it.

Alza made the move to Canada in the late 80’s to pursue acting.  He quickly jumped into learning English and training himself in theatre and on-camera at dozens of studios and schools, learning bio-mechanics, method acting and Meisner. In 1991 he emerged in the business and said, “I will not stop until the door opens!” And with that said he has become one of Toronto’s most successful actors and a brillian emmerging director.

Awards
Best Feature - Moving Image Festivals Toronto for “Gangster Exchange” 
Audience Award Winner - Beverly Hills Film Fest for “Gangster Exchange” 
Best Feature – Royal Flush Film Festival for “Gangster Exchange” 
Best Foreign Film – Action On Film Fest for “Gangster Exchange”  
Best Feature – Mississauga Film Fest for “Gangster Exchange” 
Reel World Trailblazer Award  
Award of Merit from the Multi Mansions Association.  
City of Toronto Award
www.walteraza.com

Dean Bajramovic – Directpr/Writer/Producer

After finishing a Biology degree from University of Toronto (Canada) in 1997 Dean
moved to Osaka, Japan. Dean spent 2 years in Japan teaching English and French to
high school students during the day and Japanese businessmen at night. Japanese culture
continues to be a major influence in his films.

After leaving Japan, Dean moved to London (England) where he worked for 2 years as a
research analyst for the Europe branch a Telecommunications consultancy. In 2002 Dean
returned to school to obtain an MA degree in filmmaking from London Film School.
During those 2 years Dean worked on approximately 30 short films, music videos and
TV commercials; both at the school and commercially in London. His final student film,
Guns to Gogo, won a Gold Medal at the Park City Music Film Festival and Best Action
Short of the Year at the Action on Film Festival. Dean recently completed his first
feature film: Gangster Exchange, which has won 6 Best Film awards at festivals in North
America. It is currently playing on TMN.

Marsha Chesley – Casting Director

Marsha Chesley has been a casting director for over thirty years working in every medium:  feature films, movies of the week, dramatic series, and sitcoms.  In her years at CBC she worked with some of Canada’s most-respected filmmakers including Claude Jutra, Donald Brittain, Francis Mankiewicz, Gordon Pinsent, and Al Waxman.  She also worked on two of Canada’s best-loved television shows of all time – King of Kensington and Seeing Things.

With a background in education Marsha has led workshops for actors and is frequently called upon to give seminars to producers, directors and writers as well.  For three years she was Casting Director-in-Residence at The Canadian Film Centre, the film school started by Norman Jewison.  She wrote a book called You Got the Part! published by J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing Inc. which continues to be a best seller.

Marsha currently sits on the George Brown College Theatre Department Advisory Committee and is co-chair of the Casting Directors Society of Canada (CDC).  At present she is working on the third season of the series Little Mosque on the Prairie for CBC as well as a new series for TMN called The Weight, written and produced by George F. Walker, and The Bridge, and MOW for CTV.

Juli Ann Kay - Casting Director

Juli-Ann Kay, CSA/CDC has approximately 30 years of industry experience.  Actor turned professional Casting Director in the USA, Uk & Canada, Juli-Ann has put her expertise towards film, TV and commercials.  Just a few of her credits include X-Men, K-19 – The Widow Maker (Harrison Ford) and Death to Smoochy (Danny Devito, Edward Norton and Robin Williams).  She went to Vancouver in Oct. 2008 to do the U.S. and Canadian Casting for Frankie & Alice a Feature Film starring,  Halle Berry.  She was asked to do all of the Casting because of  her unique way of dealing with both talent and people in general.  Check out www.imdb.com  for a more complete a list of her projects.   More on JK

MARJORIE LECKER – Casting Director (Gemini Award Nominee) 

Marjorie  has been a casting director for the last fifteen years.  Some of her credits include Sticks and Stones for CTV,The Good Shepherd, The Limit and The Last Hit Man, for Peace Arch, Forensic Factor for Discovery, Cold Blood for Global and The CBC miniseries Canada/Russia ’72 for which she was nominated for a Gemini Award for Best Achievement  in casting.