Author: Kirk Budhooram
Born: June 20, 1979
Bio: WHO IS KIRK BUDHOORAM?

Kirk Rabindranath Lakshman Budhooram is one of the creators of the Herman’s Tales comedic TV series, which became a huge hit in Trinidad and Tobago. Other creators are Roger Alexis and Kenwyn Francis. 

He wrote his first novel when he was 13years of age and may be the first Indo-Trinbagonian to have published a murder/suspense mystery (The Festival) in Trinidad and Tobago in 2001 according to Dr. Kris Rampersad’s book entitled Finding a Place: Indo-Trinidadian Literature, 
http://books.google.tt/books?id=aIMrUSsWpncC&pg=PA8-IA4&lpg=PA8-IA4&dq=kirk+budhooram&source=web&ots=jJEC0RbNBJ&sig=tTEv9vnQdKN8pMBQomC5VnJkvhs&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=10&ct=result 

In 2003, Kirk published Kirk Budhooram’s Ibis Agents. This story was the beginning of the adventures of William Knight, a spy working for CARICOM (Caribbean community), protecting the regional security of the Caribbean from evil organizations like drug cartels, mafias and crime syndicates.

In 2007, he received the PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD: BEST SHORT FILM at the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival for writing and directing the fourth episode, Herman’s Tales: Kidnapped making him an award-winning film maker. He co-produced this episode with Roger Alexis and Kenwyn Francis. 

Kirk Budhooram is also the writer of many short-movie screenplays like A Greedy Friend, Banana Robber, Superhero Charlie, Kidnapped, Paraskevidekatriaphobia and Final Appeal, to name a few. His credits for feature film screenplays are Soucouyant, Retribution and Road Rage, to name a few.

EARLY LIFE

Kirk Budhooram was born on June 20, 1979. He was born in San Fernando, Trinidad, West Indies. He is the eldest of three children. He attended A.C. Goberdhan Memorial School (private-primary) from 1982-1990, Naparima College from 1990-1997 where he gained 8 O-Level Passes and 4 A-Level Passes. Then he attended the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad, West Indies from 1997-2000 where he graduated with honours with a BSc. in Industrial Engineering. 

While in primary school, Kirk always wondered what he would be when he grew up. He would switch from policeman to fireman to garbage man to businessman to doctor to lawyer and one day it dawned on him that he could be all of those things as an actor in Hollywood. At the age of 8, he decided he wanted to become an actor.  In Trinidad and Tobago acting was not a self-sustaining job. His country did not have a film industry and all actors performed on stage as a side-line business or hobby. Kirk started performing in Christmas pageants for his church, Susamachar Presbyterian Church.

THE ADVENT OF HIS WRITING CAREER

One of Kirk’s hobbies was reading. At the age of 13, he read a fiction novel about a high school boy who used a pseudonym to write novels. His novels became so famous that all the high school girls wanted to meet this author, not knowing their friend was the famous writer. As soon as Kirk finished reading that book he started writing his very first novel. 

He decided on a pseudonym, Rick Stuart. But when his father, Earle Budhooram heard this, he advised Kirk that if he was serious about writing he should always use his real name. Kirk saw the logic in this advice and agreed.

Kirk did not have a computer then so he would visit various bookstores and record the names of publishers and their addresses. His first novel, A Heartless Murder was hand-written on 100 files pages but was rejected by a publisher in England.  He then borrowed his grandparents’ typewriter and retyped the same story. 

His mother, Patricia Budhooram is his personal editor for most of his screenplays and novels.

After CXC exams, (age 16yrs) he got his first computer. He then, while still in high school, wrote The Festival. After graduating from the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine with a BSc. in Industrial Engineering he was contacted by a USA publisher. They wanted to publish his novel. In 2001, his first action-adventure fiction novel was published. In 2003, his second novel, Kirk Budhooram’s Ibis Agents was also published by the same publisher.

THE ADVENT OF HIS FILM CAREER

On January 16, 2003, Kirk was hired as a MATERIALS ENGINEER in an air-conditioning factory in Cocorite, Port of Spain. There he met two friends who would change his life forever. They were Roger Alexis and Kenwyn Francis. 

The three friends set out to make their first experimental movie, A Greedy Friend in 2005. It was written by Kirk Budhooram and directed by Roger Alexis. Since they always spoke about making movies as full-time jobs, they decided to just do it. Kirk wrote a script with three characters only. In each scene there would only be two characters so one person could operate the camera.

Among these three friends no one had a movie camera. However, Kirk had a laptop and a digital camera, FinePix S602Zoom Digital Camera that could record only 27seconds of video. Kirk explained they would shoot 27seconds, download it into the laptop, delete the video from the camera and shoot again. They filmed for four Sundays (as they worked during the week) and Kirk edited the movie on Windows Movie Maker. The movie was 15mins long.

Kirk then wrote another script called Banana Robber. He used the same strategy where there were only three characters, two for every scene. A few months before, Roger Alexis had bought a puppet he named HERMAN. He always wanted to do a movie with the puppet and Kirk wrote in Herman as a narrator for the Banana Robber story. Roger and Kenwyn were excited and they immediately started filming. That time they used a camcorder from one of Roger’s friend. Roger was the director again. They filmed it in four Sundays and hired a professional editor who loved the theme of Banana Robber. The editor wished that Herman had featured more in the movie though.

Kirk, Roger and Kenwyn had already decided to film 6episodes of their new comedic series Herman’s Tales where Banana Robber would be the first one under the ABF Films banner (Alexis-Budhooram-Francis). But after that comment from the editor then Herman took a more starring role. It was the Caribbean comedy of a puppet mixing with humans. The show dealt with crime, gang violence, a superhero, kidnapping, romance, inefficiency of the police service, gaining respect in the army. As they progressed in filming the 6 episodes, they got a better camera, more puppets and actors. 

In 2006, the Trinidad and Tobago Film Company (TTFC) was created by the government of Trinidad and Tobago to fund filmmakers to produce movies to help develop the local film industry. The TTFC turned down the trio’s proposal for production funding of Banana Robber but the TTFC was impressed that they had made a movie with a digital camera. However, that did not keep the trio back. They went ahead and made Banana Robber with their own money and entered it in the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival 2006 where they got great reviews. In 2007, the TTFC granted funds to the trio for their fourth and fifth episodes. 

The six episodes were a hit on television. Kirk who wrote and directed the fourth episode, Herman’s Tales: Kidnapped won the PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD: BEST SHORT FILM at the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival held at Movie Towne Cinemas, Invaders Bay, Audrey Jeffers Highway, Port of Spain in September 2007.

The trio later quit their jobs at the air-conditioning plant (at different times) to further their dreams in the film-making industry.  Kirk left his job on April 30, 2008 to become a full-time writer and film maker. 




FILMOGRAPHY

DATE,	 TITLE,	 ACTING ROLE,	 JOB,	 NOTES
				
2001	The Festival, 		Author,	 A novel

2003	Kirk Budhooram’s Ibis Agents,		 Author, 	A novel

2005	A Greedy Friend,	 Peter ,	 Writer/Actor/Executive Producer/ Editor,	 Filmed with a digital camera

2006	Herman’s Tales: Banana Robber,	Manni/ Ragoo,	Writer/Actor/Executive Producer	, TV-30min comedy

2006	Herman’s Tales: Superhero Charlie,		Writer/Director/Executive Producer,	Directorial Debut

2007	Herman’s Tales: Mandy,	Mr. Jadoo,	Actor/Executive Producer
	
2007	Herman’s Tales: Kidnapped	,	Writer/Director/Executive Producer,  
	Won People’s Choice Award: Best Short Film at Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival 2007.

2007	Paraskevidekatriaphobia,	Naveen,	Writer/Actor/Executive Producer/Director,	First movie under K.B. Productions

2007	Herman’s Tales: Top Cop,	Davis,	Actor/Executive Producer
	
2007	Herman’s Tales: Patriot,	Wayne,	Actor/Executive Producer	

2007	Escape to Dragon’s Mouth,		Writer –feature film,	Hired to write Screenplay-awaiting production

2008	Retribution,		Writer –feature film,	Hired to write Screenplay- awaiting production

2008	Final Appeal,		Writer – 30mins, 	Awaiting production

2008	Soucouyant,		Writer- feature film,	Awaiting production

2008	Road Rage,		Writer – feature film,	Awaiting production

2008	A Long Day Into Night,	Writer/Producer/Director/Co-editor -40mins short, 	Enter International Film Festivals 2009.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

http://www.newsday.co.tt/features/0,64423.html

http://www.newsday.co.tt/features/0,80759.html

http://www.guyanajournal.com/icw.html

(article above added Oct 6, 2008)