Michael A. Goorjian
Date of birth: 1971-02-04
Place of birth: San Francisco, California, USA
Known for: Directing
Also known as: Michael Gourjian, Michael Andranik Goorjian, Michael Goorjian
Biography
Michael A. Goorjian (born February 4, 1971; San Francisco) is an American filmmaker, writer and actor. Goorjian won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or Special for his role as David Goodson in the television film David's Mother (1994). He is also known for his role as Justin, Neve Campbell’s love interest on the series Party of Five (1994–2000), as well as Heroin Bob in the film SLC Punk! (1998) and its sequel, Punk's Dead (2016). As a director, Goorjian achieved recognition for his first major independent film, Illusion (2004), which he wrote, directed and starred in alongside Hollywood legend Kirk Douglas. 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’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. 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.
Movie Credits
SLC Punk
1998-09-24
Two former geeks become 1980s punks, then party and go to concerts while deciding what to do with th
Broken
2007-10-05
A waitress confronts all the wrong turns she has made in her short life and ultimately ends up facin
Amerikana
2001-05-15
Peter and Chris, two young American friends in their late 20s, go from South Dakota to California on
Chaplin
1992-12-17
An aged Charlie Chaplin narrates his life to his autobiography's editor, including his rise to wealt
Around June
2008-10-10
A love story set in the shadow of the shipyards of San Francisco. A young woman living with her much
Illusion
2004-10-25
A once-powerful, but now ailing movie director nears the end of his life. As he awaits death, he sli
Here Lies Lonely
1999-06-05
Go for Broke
2002-06-27
After their winning lottery ticket was stolen and wound up in a women’s prison, two men hatch a plan
The Invisibles
1999-01-26
Jude and Joy escape to her Parisian flat for a private detox. A dark comedy of word games, sex, fant
Life in a Day
1999-05-20
A scientific experiment in rapid-cell growth goes awry when a lab assistant steals the developed ser
The Flood: Who Will Save Our Children?
1993-10-10
In rural Comfort, Texas, the strict protestant Horizon Bible church community holds its annual, pret
Conversations with God
2006-01-25
"Conversations with God" is the true story of Neale Donald Walsch that inspired and changed the live
David's Mother
1994-04-10
Sally Goodson has been raising her autistic son David alone since her husband left many years ago. N
Do Not Disturb
1999-11-04
Combining a family vacation with business, Walter Richmond takes his wife and their 10-year-old, mut
The Mesmerist
2002-03-11
Based on an Edgar Allan Poe story, this film tells the grimly comic tale of a bad-tempered old man (
Amerikatsi
2022-07-21
In 1948, decades after fleeing Armenia to the US as a child, Charlie returns in the hopes of finding
Forever Young
1992-12-16
A 1939 test pilot asks his best friend to use him as a guinea pig for a cryogenics experiment. Danie
Hard Rain
1998-01-16
An armored car driver tries to elude a gang of thieves while a flood ravages the countryside.
The Wizard of Lies
2017-05-11
A look behind the scenes at Bernie Madoff's massive Ponzi scheme, how it was perpetrated on the publ
Punk's Dead: SLC Punk 2
2016-02-11
Punk's Dead, the sequel to 1999 cult hit SLC Punk, is a punk romp through the Utah hinterlands. Ross
Deal of a Lifetime
2000-10-31
The agent for the Devil takes the soul of a high school sophomore in exchange for a date with the mo
Leaving Las Vegas
1995-10-27
Ben Sanderson, an alcoholic Hollywood screenwriter who lost everything because of his drinking, arri
Something More
2000-11-28
When Sam and his friend fall for the same woman, their friendship is put at risk.
Newsies
1992-04-10
A week in the life of the exploited, child newspaper sellers in turn-of-the-century New York. When t
Art House
1998-01-01
Ray McMichael is a part time coffee shop employee and part time filmmaker who teams up with film fes
Pin-Up
2018-08-17
Uninspired and in her forties, celebrated photographer, Lana Freeman, searches for the elusive visua
Land of Dreams
2022-09-16
Simin is an Iranian woman on a journey to discover what it means to be a free American. She works fo
Blind Justice
1994-06-25
Canaan, a mysterious gunfighter left nearly blind from Civil War combat, roams through Mexico with a
Blood Drips Heavily on Newsie Square
1991-01-01
Washed up actor Don Knotts shows up on the back lot of Universal Studios in Hollywood, California in