Guerman Gaft

Guerman Gaft is a character actor residing in Los Angeles, California. His training began in performing arts high school at the age of 15. He and his peers brought home multiple 2nd and 3rd place trophies for comedic and dramatic performances, competing against elite performing arts high schools at the D.T.A.S.C. Festival (Drama Teachers Association of Southern California). Aside from acting, Guerman also took a natural liking to dance and martial arts. Under the guidance of world-renowned, Grand Master Ho Jin Song, Guerman climbed to achieve the ranking of his first dan Black Belt, in the Korean art of Hapkido.

At the age of 3, Guerman displayed a natural proclivity to impersonating eccentric people in his surroundings, ranging from his nanny to the obnoxiously loud upstairs neighbor. Guerman’s talent was visible in his keen sense of capturing vocal inflections, facial expressions, and his physicality. It was Sanford Meisner who said that “An ounce of behavior is worth a pound of words.” Guerman’s infatuation with character impersonation brought laughter to many that surrounded him, but most of all, his older brother and hero, Jake, who is 13 years his senior. In doing so, he was consumed by an innocent, childlike feeling of accomplishment that he intuitively understood would later satisfy his hunger for capturing the imaginations of others.

His predisposition to the performing arts was deeply rooted in his genes, as his maternal grandfather was a famous choreographer from the former Soviet Union, who once shared the stage with Mikhail Baryshnikov and later, led an entire ensemble of dancers, as he performed around the world. Guerman’s mother, a pianist and music conductor began her own music school, and his father, a robotics science engineering graduate and published writer, both immigrated to the US from Russia with humble beginnings.

Guerman moved to Florida to complete his Bachelor of Science in Psychology at Nova Southeastern University, where he also participated in multiple theatre productions before audiences, filling hundreds of seats. In 2014 his professional acting career officially began after booking his first couple of commercials. Under the tutelage of Michael Jacques, Guerman became more aware of his impact and presence on screen. Michael fine-tuned Guerman’s timing, camera awareness, professionalism, and provided him with the tools needed for film acting. He quickly learned to differentiate the lessons he received from scene study classes with Michael, to those that he picked up at casting director and commercial acting workshops. Ellen Jacoby, Lori Wymon, Timothy O’Keefe, and Bill Coelius, were just a few that helped Guerman understand key principles of auditioning, proper etiquette, and tools for spontaneity. Upon his return to Los Angeles in 2016, he began scene study classes with Brad Fleischer, who broke down Guerman’s tendencies of premeditating his scene settings and actions, and inspired his ability to create organic moments on stage.

Throughout the years, Guerman’s performances have brought satisfaction to diverse audiences and through each performance, he continually reignited his burning, childlike desire of expressing himself through the diverse characters that he played. This was, and still is Guerman’s fulfillment, and the definition of his true self that he wishes to share with the world.