Raoul Bhaneja is an English-Canadian actor, musician, writer and producer.
Early life and studies
Bhaneja was born in Manchester. His father is South Asian and mother is Irish. A graduate of The National Theatre School of Canada and Ottawa's Canterbury High School's Arts Canterbury programme for drama.
Career
Raoul Bhaneja has appeared in more than a hundred different film and television projects in addition to a long list of theatre productions. His first job in television was in the first season of the 1996 cutting edge comedy The Newsroom, directed by Ken Finkleman for CBC. He was one of the stars of the television series Train 48, which produced over 300 episodes in two years and was broadcast on Global. Bhaneja's first starring role in a feature film was with Andy Jones and Mary Walsh in Extraordinary Visitor in 1998. Directed by John Doyle, it debuted at The Toronto International Film Festival. Other features include Atom Egoyan's Ararat, The Sentinel opposite Michael Douglas, Godsend with Rebecca Romin-Stamos, Touch of Pink with Jimi Mistry and Kyle MacLachlan, Weirdsville with Scott Speedman and Wes Bentley, the romantic comedy The Right Kind of Wrong, the U.S. independent film As Good As You, Portrait of a Serial Monogamist, Ice Soldiers, 2016's Miss Sloane, opposite Jessica Chastain and HBO Films' Fahrenheit 451. His television roles include The Dresden Files, Pure, Rogue, The Best Laid Plans, Crawford, Sunshine Sketches, At The Hotel with guest-star appearances on Rookie Blue, Remedy, The Listener, Motive, Beauty and The Beast, Nikita, Bitten, Alphas, Warehouse 13, Frankie Drake, The Ron James Show, The Republic of Doyle, Murdoch Mysteries, Private Eyes, Saving Hope, The Listener, Flashpoint, The Art of More, Suits and many others. In January of 2006 Bhaneja debuted in Hamlet , a one-man version of Shakespeare's Hamlet directed by Robert Ross Parker, which has been performed across Canada including an engagement at The National Arts Centre in the fall of 2013, in the United Kingdom at The Assembly Rooms as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art as well as in New York City on a number of occasions, including Off Broadway. The production is the subject of a documentary, directed by Jeff Stephenson, that was later nominated for the 2008 Gemini Award. His stage musical Life, Death and The Blues, produced in association with Theatre Passe Muraille in Toronto, toured across Canada for more than a hundred performances and played to more than 20,000 patrons. Described as a "theatre/concert hybrid," the Dora Mavor Moore Award and Betty Mitchell Award production featured a live band on stage and Raoul Bhaneja's co-star, Juno-Award-winner Divine Brown. That successful production was followed by the hit play Disgraced by Ayad Akhtar, co-produced with Mirvish Productions, which smashed box-office records in two separate runs in Toronto at the Panasonic Theatre as well as at the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton. Bhaneja was joined on stage by his wife Birgitte Solem.
Music
Bhaneja is also the front man of the Maple Blues Award-winning blues band Raoul and The Big Time, formed in 1998. They have released Big Time Blues, Cold Outside, You My People, Blue Midnight: A Live Tribute Little Walter through Big Time Records and Maple Blues Award nominated Hollywood Blvd recorded with members of Canned Heat and The Mavis Staples Band among others. Bhaneja is also a member of the band The Legendary Miles Johnson with Edmonton-based musician Graham Guest and has appeared as a guest artist on a number of recordings.
