Keram Malicki-Sánchez is an actor, musician, writer, filmmaker, interactive media and virtual reality developer, multimedia artist, and event producer.

Acting career

Malicki-Sánchez debuted in musical theatre at the age of seven in the title role of ''Oliver!'' at the Limelight Dinner Theatre in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most pop ...

. He later starred in the original musical version of

Mordecai Richler Mordecai Richler (January 27, 1931 – July 3, 2001) was a Canadian writer. His best known works are '' The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz'' (1959) and '' Barney's Version'' (1997). His 1970 novel ''St. Urbain's Horseman'' and 1989 novel ...

's ''Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang'' (1984) which won a Dora Mavor Moore Award for Best Revue or Musical, directed by Peter Moss. In 2013, in the role of Kenny, he was chainsawed in half by

Leatherface Leatherface is a fictional character in ''The Texas Chainsaw Massacre'' film series created by Kim Henkel and Tobe Hooper. He first appears in ''The Texas Chain Saw Massacre'' as a disfigured, cannibalistic and mentally unstable mass murderer ...

in ''

Texas Chainsaw 3D ''Texas Chainsaw 3D'' (stylized on-screen simply as ''Texas Chainsaw'') is a 2013 American slasher film directed by John Luessenhop, with a screenplay by Adam Marcus, Debra Sullivan and Kirsten Elms. It is the seventh installment in ''The T ...

'', a film that MTV wrote "shocked the box office with #1 debut, topping both ''Django Unchained'' and ''The Hobbit''." In 2020 Malicki-Sanchez starred in the role of eccentric artist Zeke in a comedic web series for the

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the governme ...

called 'Decoys' whose ensemble cast was nominated at the

Canadian Screen Awards The Canadian Screen Awards (french: link=no, Les prix Écrans canadiens) are awards given for artistic and technical merit in the film industry recognizing excellence in Canadian film, English-language television, and digital media (web series) ...

for Best Web Series.

Musical career

In 1987, at age 13, Malicki-Sanchez released a solo 45" on vinyl, in Spanish, through Ecuador's Fe Discos. In 1990, he founded the record label Constant Change Productions out of Toronto, and formed his band, Blue Dog Pict. The band released three albums: ''The Picture Album'' (1990), ''Anxiety of Influence: a nodding into...?'' (1992), and ''Spindly Light Und Wax Rocketines'' (1995), all distributed by Montreal's Distribution FUSION III. It was included in the book "Any Night of the Week" about the history of Canadian rock music by Jonny Dovercourt. In 1995, Constant Change released ''Irrevocable Upgrade'', a compilation of exotic musical works which Malicki-Sanchez curated and produced. In 1998, Malicki-Sanchez launched the band Ribcage, with Eric Ryder Costello and Paul Gallinato, and toured Cleveland and New York, releasing one album, ''For Machines to Dream About''. In 2003 he wrote and performed the song ''The Truth Be Told'' for the film

Uptown Girls ''Uptown Girls'' is a 2003 American comedy-drama film directed by Boaz Yakin, from a screenplay by Julia Dahl, Mo Ogrodnik and Lisa Davidowitz adapted from the story by Allison Jacobs. It stars Brittany Murphy as a 22-year-old living a charmed li ...

. In January 2008, Malicki-Sanchez began releasing albums under the solo name Keram, launching a music video for the song ''Antiskeptic'', before releasing his solo debut acoustic album ''Box''. In 2014, he released the album ''Come to Life'', which includes contributions from over 30 musicians, including

Alex Lifeson Aleksandar Živojinović, (born 27 August 1953), known professionally as Alex Lifeson (), is a Canadian musician, best known as the guitarist and backing vocalist of the progressive rock band Rush. In 1968, Lifeson co-founded the band that wo ...

on guitar. He later crowdfunded to produce three songs: ''(Don't Get Caught) By the Dazzling Charades'' (2018), ''Artificial Intelligence'' (2019) and ''That Light'' (2020). He has also composed for several movies shown on Lifetime Movie Network and

PixL PixL is an independent American television channel that broadcasts commercial-free films and miniseries targeted at families. The network debuted on December 7, 2010 on the Dish Network satellite system. Sky Angel Sky Angel was a U.S. opera ...

: ''Mr. Write'' (2016), ''Twist of Fate'' (2016), ''Bad Date Chronicles'' (2017),''Same Time Next Week'' (2017) and ''Sleeping With Danger'' (2020).

Filmmaking

Malicki-Sanchez received certificates in cinematography, digital media, and film producing at

UCLA Extension UCLA Extension is a public continuing education institution headquartered in Westwood, Los Angeles, on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles. Classes are held at UCLA, in Downtown Los Angeles, and other locations throughout Lo ...

. His first short film ''A Killer App'' won the Best Monster Creation award winner at the 2010 Shockfest Film Festival. His short film ''Tulip Pink'' was screened at the 2011

Newport Beach Film Festival The Newport Beach Film Festival (NBFF) is an annual film festival in Newport Beach, California, typically held in late April. In 2022, it was announced that the festival have permanently changed its date to be held in October, as the festival be ...

and other film festivals. His third short ''How (Not) To Become a Vampire'' made the festival rounds in 2011, screening at the

Austin Film Festival Austin Film Festival (AFF), founded in 1994, is an organization in Austin, Texas, that focuses on writers’ creative contributions to film. Initially, AFF was called the Austin Heart of Film Screenwriters Conference and functioned to launch the ...

and winning a People's Choice Award at the Zero Film Festival in Toronto.

New media

In 1994, Malicki-Sánchez founded Robot Pride Day, an ironic annual festival that is still celebrated. In September 2008, Malicki-Sanchez launched Keramcast, a podcast that was a digest for the topics discussed on his various blogs, and at IndieGameReviewer.com, also referred to as 'IGR', an

indie game An indie game, short for independent video game, is a video game typically created by individuals or smaller development teams without the financial and technical support of a large game publisher, in contrast to most "AAA" (triple-A) games. ...

review

blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...

. He maintains the position of editor-in-chief. In 2020 Malicki-Sanchez was the project lead for a company called Spatialized Events, which was dedicated to immersive media showcases in

WebXR WebXR Device API is a Web application programming interface (API) that describes support for accessing augmented reality and virtual reality devices, such as the HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Oculus Quest, Google Cardboard, HoloLens, Magic Leap ...

. Working with lead developer James Baicoianu, he designed a variety 3D worlds for his

VRTO Started in 2015 by Keram Malicki-Sanchez as a virtual reality Meetup Group in Toronto, VRTO launched the VRTO Virtual & Augmented Reality World Conference & Expo in June 2016 – an international exhibition and professional conference explorin ...

and Festival of International Virtual & Augmented Reality Stories virtual events using threejs and

Blender A blender (sometimes called a mixer or liquidiser in British English) is a kitchen and laboratory appliance used to mix, crush, purée or emulsify food and other substances. A stationary blender consists of a blender container with a rotating me ...

, the latter could also play stereoscopic 4k video with ambisonic audio, VOIP, and video chat (all programmed using the elation engine and powered by JanusWeb and

AWS Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) is a subsidiary of Amazon that provides on-demand cloud computing platforms and APIs to individuals, companies, and governments, on a metered pay-as-you-go basis. These cloud computing web services provide di ...

. Malicki-Sanchez developed interfaces and tools to create a solution that could be licensed to 3rd party festivals and conferences. Eighty per cent of the

codebase In software development, a codebase (or code base) is a collection of source code used to build a particular software system, application, or software component. Typically, a codebase includes only human-written source code files; thus, a codeba ...

used

JavaScript JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language that is one of the core technologies of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. As of 2022, 98% of Website, websites use JavaScript on the Client (computing), client side ...

, with the remainder being

CSS Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language used for describing the presentation of a document written in a markup language such as HTML or XML (including XML dialects such as SVG, MathML or XHTML). CSS is a cornerstone t ...

PHP PHP is a General-purpose programming language, general-purpose scripting language geared toward web development. It was originally created by Danish-Canadian programmer Rasmus Lerdorf in 1993 and released in 1995. The PHP reference implementati ...

, and

HTML The HyperText Markup Language or HTML is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It can be assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and scripting languages such as JavaScri ...

Virtual reality and immersive technology

In 2015, Malicki-Sanchez founded

– a Toronto-based virtual and augmented reality meetup whose inaugural event was held at

Ryerson University Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU or Toronto Met) is a public university, public research university located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The university's core campus is situated within the Garden District, Toronto, Garden District, although i ...

's Student Learning Center, and Transportive Technology – a virtual-reality content production company which saw Malicki-Sanchez teaming up with Lee Towndrow to create one of the world's first 360

ASMR Autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) is a tingling sensation that usually begins on the scalp and moves down the back of the neck and upper spine. A pleasant form of paresthesia, it has been compared with auditory-tactile synesthesia ...

Immersive video 360-degree videos, also known as surround video, or immersive videos or spherical videos, are video recordings where a view in every direction is recorded at the same time, shot using an omnidirectional camera or a collection of cameras. During p ...

s. This led to the creation of FIVARS, the "Festival of International Virtual and Augmented Reality Stories" which he co-organized with technical director Joseph Ellsworth. FIVARS debuted at Toronto's Camp Wavelength music festival, and showed the first full viewing of ''MansLaughter'' by Cinemersia, which claims to be the world's first

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), e ...

feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

. FIVARS had its inaugural show in Toronto on 19 and 20 September 2015. The second FIVARS, which was September 16–18, 2016, was at MSMU Studios – a 5,000 square-foot Toronto warehouse redesigned for the festival. Malicki-Sanchez then created the

Virtual & Augmented Reality World Conference & Expo which was staged at Toronto's Mattamy Athletic Centre (formerly

Maple Leaf Gardens Maple Leaf Gardens is a historic building located at the northwest corner of Carlton Street and Church Street in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The building was initially constructed in 1931 as an arena to host ice hockey games, though it has sin ...

). Malicki-Sanchez has been invited to speak about Virtual Reality and its effects on society at Techweek Toronto, the

Canadian National Exhibition The Canadian National Exhibition (CNE), also known as The Exhibition or The Ex, is an annual event that takes place at Exhibition Place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on the third Friday of August leading up to and including Canadian Labour Day ...

, and Cinegear Expo, ideacity. In 2020, Keram's essays were published in two books: ''Handbook of Research on the Global Impacts and Roles of Immersive Media'', edited by

Jacquelyn Ford Morie Jacquelyn Ford Morie is an artist, scientist and educator working in the areas of immersive worlds, games and social networks. Until 2013 she was a Senior Research Scientist at the Institute for Creative Technologies. In 2013 she started a spi ...

and Kate McCallum, and ''Dyscorpia: Future Intersections of the Body and Technology''. Also in 2020, Malicki-Sanchez moved the VRTO conference online, creating a multi-platform experience he coined 'The Flotilla'. It used a video-streaming conference app, the

Mozilla Mozilla (stylized as moz://a) is a free software community founded in 1998 by members of Netscape. The Mozilla community uses, develops, spreads and supports Mozilla products, thereby promoting exclusively free software and open standards, w ...

Hubs web VR platform running custom code on the

Amazon Web Services Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) is a subsidiary of Amazon.com, Amazon that provides Software as a service, on-demand cloud computing computing platform, platforms and Application programming interface, APIs to individuals, companies, and gover ...

cloud and hosted a micro summit on accessibility. In October 2020, Malicki-Sanchez was interviewed by podcaster

Kent Bye Kent Bye (born 1976) is an American podcaster and experiential journalist based in Portland, Oregon. He is the founder and host of the ''Voices of VR'' podcast, and a keynote speaker, panelist, and moderator at international industry conferences i ...

on Voices of VR about the creation of a 4k 360-degree screening space in

for the FIVARS festival. They discussed how, for FIVARS 2021, he created various 3D environments with

modelling software and brought them to life using the JanusWeb engine,

and

and co-developed an immersive 3-screen theater for the web-based event. He was interviewed a second time by Bye to discuss how to curate an international festival for WebXR in 2021 when FIVARS opened its first event in West Hollywood. In September 2021 Malicki-Sanchez was included in the 100 Original Voices in XR list created by former Apple and Google developer Avi Bar-Zeev. He was awarded "Creator of the Year" at 2022 Poly Awards for WebXR development of his WebXR festivals, world design, 360 video productions, and online conference. He produced and brought VRTO back as an in-person event July 20-21st at

OCAD University Ontario College of Art & Design University, commonly known as OCAD University or OCAD, is a public art university located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The university's main campus is spread throughout several buildings and facilities within do ...

in Toronto, curating a conference about the current surge in text-to-image GAN art and virtual production for television. Be began teaching

for

Web3D Web3D was initially the idea to fully display and navigate websites using 3D. By extension, the term now refers to all interactive 3D content that is embedded into web pages' HTML and that users can see through a web browser. Notable formats an ...

at UCLA Extension in the fall of 2022.

Television appearances

* ''

Faerie Tale Theatre Faerie Tale Theatre (also known as Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre) is an American live-action fairytale fantasy drama anthology television series of 27 episodes, that originally aired on Showtime from September 11, 1982 until November 14, ...

'' (1985), Lame Boy, Willie * '' Amerika'' (1987), Young Caleb * '' I'll Take Manhattan'' (1987), Justin Amberville (child) * '' Zardip's Search for Healthy Wellness'' (1988), Zardip * ''

The Ray Bradbury Theater ''The Ray Bradbury Theater'' is an anthology series that ran for three seasons on First Choice Superchannel in Canada and HBO in the United States from 1985 to 1986, and then on USA Network, running for four additional seasons from 1988 to 19 ...

'' (1988), Martin * ''Summer Storm'' (1988), Joey * '' Street Legal'' (1988), Tom Prouse * '' Friday the 13th: The Series'', Ricky (1988) and Peter Marshak (1989) * '' War of the Worlds'' (1989–1990), Ceeto * ''

Katts and Dog ''Katts and Dog'' is a French and Canadian-produced television series that ran from 1988 to 1993. It was known as ''Rin Tin Tin: K-9 Cop'' in the United States where it originally aired on CBN Cable/The Family Channel and ''Rintintin Junior'' in ...

'' (1992) * ''

Catwalk A fashion show (French ''défilé de mode'') is an event put on by a fashion designer to showcase their upcoming line of clothing and/or accessories during a fashion week. Fashion shows debut every season, particularly the Spring/Summer and Fal ...

'' (1992–1993), Johnny Camden * '' Ready or Not'' (1993–1996), The Liz * ''

TekWar ''TekWar'' is a series of science fiction novels created by Canadian actor William Shatner and ghost-written by American writer Ron Goulart, published by Putnam beginning in October 1989. The novels gave rise to a comic book series, video game, and ...

: TekLab'' (1994), Mustapha * ''

L.A. Doctors ''L.A. Doctors'' is an American medical drama television series set in a Los Angeles primary care practice. It ran on CBS from September 21, 1998 to May 10, 1999. It replaced ''Brooklyn South'' after its cancellation in May 1998. Premise Four Los ...

'' (1999), Alex Atcheson * ''

Silk Stalkings ''Silk Stalkings'' is an American crime drama television series that premiered on CBS on November 7, 1991, as part of the network's late-night ''Crimetime After Primetime'' programming package. Broadcast for two seasons until CBS ended the ''Crim ...

'' (1999), Lyn Mocrief and Monk * '' Late Last Night'' (1999), Drag Queen * '' Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' (1999), Freddy Iverson - Episode "

Earshot Earshot is an American alternative metal band formed in Los Angeles in 1999. The band's lineup has changed several times during their existence, with vocalist Wil Martin being the band's sole constant member. After signing to Warner Bros. Reco ...

" * '' ER'' (1999), Rick and Goth Kid * '' 24'' (2001), Larry Rogow * ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide ...

'' (2003), Lucas Farr * '' CSI: Crime Scene Investigation'' (2004), Jamal * '' The Jane Show'' (2004), Iggy * ''

Without a Trace ''Without a Trace'' is an American police procedural drama television series created by Hank Steinberg that aired on CBS from September 26, 2002 to May 19, 2009 with the total of seven seasons and 160 episodes. The series focuses the cases of ...

'' (2005), Scott * ''

The L Word ''The L Word'' is a television drama that aired on Showtime from January 18, 2004 to March 8, 2009. The series follows the lives of a group of lesbian and bisexual women who live in West Hollywood, California. The premise originated with Ilene ...

'' (2006), Chase * '' Saving Grace'' (2007), Razor * ''

Endgame Endgame, Endgames, End Game, End Games, or similar variations may refer to: Film * ''The End of the Game'' (1919 film) * ''The End of the Game'' (1975 film), short documentary U.S. film * ''Endgame'' (1983 film), 1983 Italian post-apocalyptic f ...

'' (2011), Naveed * ''

Charlie's Angels ''Charlie's Angels'' is an American crime drama television series that aired on ABC from September 22, 1976, to June 24, 1981, producing five seasons and 115 episodes. The series was created by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts and was produced by ...

'' (2011), Lee Bowen * ''

The Mentalist ''The Mentalist'' is an American drama television series that ran from September 23, 2008, until February 18, 2015, broadcasting 151 episodes over seven seasons, on CBS. Created by Bruno Heller, who was also its executive producer, the show f ...

'' (2012), Tookie Burroughs * '' Flashpoint'' (2012), Pete Joris * ''

True Blood ''True Blood'' is an American fantasy Horror fiction, horror Drama (film and television), drama television show, television series produced and created by Alan Ball (screenwriter), Alan Ball. It is based on ''The Southern Vampire Mysteries'', a ...

'' (2012), Elijah Stormer * ''

Decoys A decoy (derived from the Dutch ''de'' ''kooi'', literally "the cage" or possibly ''ende kooi'', " duck cage") is usually a person, device, or event which resembles what an individual or a group might be looking for, but it is only meant to lur ...

'' (2020), Zeke

Filmography

* '' Eleni'' (1985), Nick's Son * ''

Boulevard A boulevard is a type of broad avenue planted with rows of trees, or in parts of North America, any urban highway. Boulevards were originally circumferential roads following the line of former city walls. In American usage, boulevards may b ...

'' (1994), Sister * ''

No Contest ' is a legal term that comes from the Latin phrase for "I do not wish to contend". It is also referred to as a plea of no contest or no defense. In criminal trials in certain United States jurisdictions, it is a plea where the defendant neithe ...

'' (1994), Cal * '' Skin Deep'' (1995), Chris Black * ''

American History X ''American History X'' is a 1998 American crime drama film directed by Tony Kaye and written by David McKenna. The film stars Edward Norton and Edward Furlong as two brothers from Los Angeles who are involved in the white power skinhead and neo ...

'' (1998), Chris * ''

Drive Me Crazy ''Drive Me Crazy'' is a 1999 American teen romantic comedy film based on the novel ''How I Created My Perfect Prom Date'' by Todd Strasser. Originally entitled ''Next to You'', the film's title was changed to ''Drive Me Crazy'' after one of the so ...

'' (1999), Rupert * '' Cherry Falls'' (2000), Timmy * '' Happy Campers'' (2001), Jasper * ''

Crazy/Beautiful ''Crazy/Beautiful'' (stylized as ''crazy/beautiful'') is a 2001 American teen romantic drama film starring Kirsten Dunst and Jay Hernandez. It is largely set at Palisades Charter High School and the surrounding area, including Downtown Los Angel ...

'' (2001), Foster * ''

John Q John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second ...

'' (2002), Freddy B * ''

Global Heresy ''Global Heresy'' (alternately titled ''Rock My World'' in the United States and Canada) is a 2002 comedy-drama film directed by Sidney J. Furie, and starring Peter O'Toole, Joan Plowright, Alicia Silverstone and Martin Clunes. The film centers ...

'' (''Rock My World'' (US)) (2002), Flit * ''Something In Between'' (2002), Jon Talents * ''

The Tulse Luper Suitcases ''The Tulse Luper Suitcases'' is a multimedia project by film maker and artist Peter Greenaway, initially intended to comprise four films, a 16-episode TV series, and 92 DVDs, as well as websites, CD-ROMs and books. The project documented the i ...

, Part 2: Vaux to the Sea'' (2004), Virgil de Selincourt * ''

Little Black Book Little Black Book may refer to: * An address book, particularly one containing the names of past or potential romantic or sexual partners * Little Black Book, an annual feature of the ''Tatler'', a British magazine * Little Black Book, Elrey Borge ...

'' (2004), Waiter * ''Queen West'' (2005), Ross * ''

Cake Cake is a flour confection made from flour, sugar, and other ingredients, and is usually baked. In their oldest forms, cakes were modifications of bread, but cakes now cover a wide range of preparations that can be simple or elaborate, ...

'' (2005), Frank * '' Sex and Death 101'' (2007), Master Bitchslap * '' Punisher: War Zone'' (2008), Ink * ''One Kine Day'' (2010), Vegas Mike * ''A Killer App'' (2010), Director/Writer/Producer/Editor * ''Tulip Pink'' (2011), Director/Writer/Producer * ''How (Not) To Become a Vampire'' (2011), Director/Producer/Editor * ''

Irvine Welsh's Ecstasy ''Irvine Welsh's Ecstasy'' is a 2011 Canadian film adaptation of the short story " The Undefeated" from the best-selling book ''Ecstasy'' by Irvine Welsh. Directed by Rob Heydon, the film stars Adam Sinclair as Lloyd Buist, a drug user who smu ...

'' (2011), Ally * ''

'' (2013), Kenny * ''The Christmas Switch'' (2014), Manny * ''Anyone Home?'' (2018), Dean * ''Being Perfectly Frank'' (2020), Kyle

Voice Acting appearances

* '' The Care Bears'' (1986), various * ''

Clifford the Big Red Dog ''Clifford the Big Red Dog'' is an American children's book series about the adventures of a precocious girl named Emily Elizabeth and her titular pet: a giant, red-furred dog named Clifford. It was first published in 1963 and was written by No ...

(1988) various * ''

Garbage Pail Kids ''Garbage Pail Kids'' is a series of sticker trading cards produced by the Topps Company, originally released in 1985 and designed to parody the ''Cabbage Patch Kids'' dolls, which were popular at the time. Each sticker card features a Garbage P ...

(1988) * ''

Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood ''Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood'' (known as ''Daniel Tiger's Neighbourhood'' in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and often abbreviated to ''Daniel Tiger'') is a Flash-animated (photographs-influenced) musical television seri ...

'' (2022), Felipe

References

External links

*
ConstantChangeMedia.com

KeramSongs
Malicki-Sánchez's official music site {{DEFAULTSORT:Malicki-Sanchez, Keram 20th-century Canadian male actors 20th-century Canadian male singers 21st-century Canadian male actors 21st-century Canadian singers 21st-century Canadian male singers Canadian male child actors Canadian male film actors Canadian male screenwriters Canadian male television actors Living people Year of birth missing (living people)