Actor from California Ely Sonny Orquiza

Bio

Ely Sonny Orquiza is a Filipino actor based in San Francisco Bay Area. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley where he acquired his BA in Theater and Performance Studies in 2017.

Orquiza began his career onstage at the age of 11 playing Don Juan in Ibong Adarna, an epic from the 15th century about a magical bird. After moving to South City and San Francisco at the age of 12, he has not had the opportunity to play onstage due of the lack of Dramatic Arts programing in public school. He began acting again at Philip and Sala Burton Academic High School after the school's unofficial inauguration of Drama Club on his first year of junior high.

In high school, Orquiza has played numerous roles in his club's production. Later he became a student in New Conservatory Theater Center's program and became one of the first of many students to study under Lauren English in San Francisco Playhouse's Rising Star Program.

Orquiza studied at the University of California, Berkeley in the department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies with an emphasis on Acting. At Cal, Orquiza has performed in many devised plays, main-stage shows, and student productions working with prominent Bay Area artists including Rhodessa Jones, Sean San Jose, Joe Goode, Guillermo Gomez Pena y La Pocha Nostra, and Philip Kan Gotanda. Credits at Cal include: ReEntry: Process of Resilience conceived and created by Joe Goode (Joe Goode Performance Group), I Wasn't Waving: Letters to the World directed by Rhodessa Jones (Cultural Odyssey/The Medea Project), Chavez Ravine directed by Sean San Jose (Campo Santo), and more. He has workshopped with internationally renowned artists from all over the world. He graduated from American Conservatory Theater's Summer Training Congress in the summer of 2016.

While at Cal, Orquiza had the opportunity to travel in Ireland to research and study Irish Theatre and worked with Gary Keegan, Irish Master Clown Raymond Keane, Broken Talkers, and Moonfish Theater.

He has worked and performed with Bindlestiff Studio for the National Queer Arts Festival, San Francisco Opera, Cal Performances, Theatre Rhinoceros, The Overcast Theatre Co., 3Girls Theatre, and Exit Theater for the annual SF Olympians Festival, and more.

Orquiza's TV Commercial credits include: Mount Sinai Hospital (2017) Citizen SF (2017) Uber 180 (2017), NBA Commercial (2015) with Arts and Science Production (dir. Brody McHugh), While You Were Out for Playstation Latin America (dir. Mark Decena), Soul of a Champion for the Golden State Warriors, and Everywhere Experiences for Silicon Valley (dir. John McNeil).

Up next is the globally anticipated world premiere of The Girls of the Golden West by John Adams, directed by Peter Sellars at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco.

November 21 to December 10, 2017.