Rishi Bhat (born May 19, 1984) is an American former

child actor The term child actor or child actress is generally applied to a child acting on stage or in movies or television. An adult who began their acting career as a child may also be called a child actor, or a "former child actor". Closely associated t ...

and

internet entrepreneur An Internet entrepreneur is an owner, founder or manager of an Internet-based business. This list includes Internet company founders and people brought on to companies for their general business or accounting acumen, as is the case with some CEO ...

Personal life

Bhat is of Indian descent. His parents are immigrants to the United States. His father Shrikant is a

metallurgical Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the sci ...

engineer. Bhat's interest in computers began when he received his first computer at the age of three years. Bhat is an alumnus of the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universit ...

, where he obtained both bachelor's and master's degrees in computer science/mathematics, in a total of 4 years.

Career

Actor

Bhat held the role of Patrick, co-starring alongside

Hal Scardino Hal Scardino (born Albert Henry Hugh Scardino; December 25, 1984) is an American-British former child actor and producer best known for having played the leading role in the movie ''The Indian in the Cupboard''. He also starred in ''Searching for ...

and

Litefoot Gary Paul Davis (born September 11, 1968), better known professionally as Litefoot, is an American business professional, actor, musician, and a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. He is the Executive Director of the Native American Financial Service ...

in the 1995 film ''

The Indian in the Cupboard ''The Indian in the Cupboard'' is a low fantasy children's novel by the British writer Lynne Reid Banks. It was published in 1980 with illustrations by Robin Jacques (UK) and Brock Cole (US). It was later adapted as a 1995 children's film o ...

'', for which he received a

Young Artist Award The Young Artist Award (originally known as the Youth in Film Award) is an accolade presented by the Young Artist Foundation, a nonprofit organization founded in 1978 to honor excellence of youth performers, and to provide scholarships for young ...

nomination.Young Artist Awards: Best Young Supporting Actor in a Feature Film
"Seventeenth Annual Youth in Film Awards"
, ''

Young Artist Awards The Young Artist Award (originally known as the Youth in Film Award) is an accolade presented by the Young Artist Foundation, a nonprofit organization founded in 1978 to honor excellence of youth performers, and to provide scholarships for young ...

'', 1994 - 1995. Retrieved on 12 April 2012.

Software entrepreneur

Between the fall of 1999 and spring of 2000, Bhat sold two

internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a ''internetworking, network of networks'' that consists ...

startups A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend t ...

, SiegeSoft.com and myEDesk.com,Peltz, Jennifer
"Web Whiz, 15, Already A Millionaire"
''

The Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

'', Chicago, 12 March 2000. Retrieved on 12 April 2012. to a Canadian software firm. SiegeSoft was written by Bhat during the summer of 1999, while a sophomore at the

University of Chicago Laboratory School The University of Chicago Laboratory Schools (also known as Lab or Lab Schools and abbreviated as UCLS though the high school is nicknamed U-High) is a private, co-educational day Pre-K and K-12 school in Chicago, Illinois. It is affiliated with ...

. When a summer

pre-calculus In mathematics education, precalculus is a course, or a set of courses, that includes algebra and trigonometry at a level which is designed to prepare students for the study of calculus. Schools often distinguish between algebra and trigonomet ...

class he wished to take was canceled, he instead spent the time writing SiegeSoft as an anonymity software program to allow users to surf the internet without leaving a trail. Originally sold online, SiegeSoft hides subscribers' identities when they use the internet and scrambles records of sites visited. Though competing software began to materialize online, SiegeSoft was determined to be both more secure and easier to use than existing software. Rocca Resources, a

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. Th ...

-based mineral-exploration company, purchased SiegeSoft from Bhat for $40,000 cash, 1.5 million shares of Rocca stock, plus shares in Rocca's first two years of profits in exchange for Bhat's continued work on refining the program. Rocca later purchased the startup MyEdesk.com from Bhat and his partner Chaitanya Mehra, with each receiving 110,000 shares of Rocca stock.

References

External links

*
Rishi Bhat at Cyber Spacers
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bhat, Rishi 1984 births Living people American male child actors American businesspeople American male actors of Indian descent Businesspeople in information technology Male actors from Chicago University of Chicago Laboratory Schools alumni University of Pennsylvania alumni