Acting Goorjian was born and raised in the
San Francisco Bay Area. His father, Peter, is
Armenian, with his paternal grandparents being survivors of the
Armenian genocide; his mother, Sarah, is of
Scottish-American descent. Goorjian grew up in
Oakland,
California, and attended
Bishop O'Dowd High School, which had a strong drama program. At the age of 14, he decided to audition for a local theatre company, thinking it was a ‘cool way’ to skip class; after successfully landing the lead role in a 'not-so-cool' play called
Computer Crazy, Goorjian soon found out that the rest of the cast were all senior citizens and that he would have to perform the play at his own junior high school. Despite this seemingly rather humiliating experience, Goorjian stuck with acting, eventually training at
UCLA’s School of Theatre, Film and Television. Goorjian won an
Emmy Award for
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or Special for the TV movie ''
David's Mother'' (starring
Kirstie Alley). Ray Loynd commented that Goorjian contributed "a wealth of physical and emotional detail that underscores the familial havoc". Goorjian’s first big Hollywood break came as a dancer when, in 1992, he was cast as ‘Skittery’ in the Disney film
Newsies (starring
Christian Bale and
Robert Duvall). What followed were roles in numerous subsequent films, including
Chaplin (with
Robert Downey Jr.),
Forever Young (with
Mel Gibson), the Oscar-nominated
Leaving Las Vegas,
Hard Rain (with
Morgan Freeman and
Christian Slater),
SLC Punk! (with
Devon Sawa),
The Invisibles (with
Portia de Rossi),
Broken (with
Heather Graham) and
Conversations with God.
Director Goorjian made his first real foray into directing with the mock-documentary
Oakland Underground, a comedy about an underground occult music scene in Oakland, CA. From there, Goorjian made
Illusion with
Kirk Douglas, which was released theatrically in 2006 after racking up over a dozen festival awards, including Best Screenplay at The Hampton’s International Film Festival, Best Feature at the
Lake Tahoe International Film Festival and The Audience Award at the Sonoma International Film Festival. With Illusion Goorjian was critically lauded for his ability to blend great filmmaking with philosophical depth. Soon after
Illusion, Goorjian began collaborating with the publishing company
Hay House to produce and direct a number of films including the documentary
You Can Heal Your Life (2007), starring metaphysical author and teacher,
Louise L. Hay and
The Shift, starring author Dr.
Wayne Dyer, along with Michael DeLuise and
Portia de Rossi. His most recent work with Hay House is an original film anthology called
Tales of Everyday Magic, which explores meaningful philosophical ideas through intimate character-driven stories. Additional directing credits include the short film
Players’ Club, which swept the 2006 Elevate Film Festival in Los Angeles, including Best Director and
The War Prayer, an adaptation of
Mark Twain’s short story by the same title starring
Jeremy Sisto. Occasionally, Goorjian also moonlights directing a circus/cabaret show in Eastern Europe called
Palazzo. In the 2020s, Goorjian returned to feature filmmaking with
Amerikatsi (2022), a project he wrote, directed, and starred in. Shot on location in Armenia, the film follows an Armenian-American navigating life under Soviet rule in the postwar era.
Amerikatsi screened at several international festivals, including the Seattle International Film Festival and the Woodstock Film Festival, and received positive reviews from outlets such as
Variety and
ScreenDaily. Armenia selected the film as its official submission for the Best International Feature Film category at the 96th Academy Awards. ==Filmography==