KONDAZIAN, Karen 1950-

PERSONAL: Born January 27, 1950, in Boston, MA; daughter of Edward (a lawyer) and Lillian M. (a teacher; maiden name, Mosesian) Kondazian. Education: San Francisco State College, B.A., 1963; also attended University of Vienna; trained for the stage at London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and at Actors Studio with Lee Strasberg, Jose Quintero, and Milton Katselas.

ADDRESSES: Agent—H. David Moss and Associates, 733 North Seward St., Penthouse, Hollywood, CA 90038.

CAREER: Actress in stage productions, including The Trojan Women, Circle in the Square, 1964; The Rose Tattoo, Beverly Hills Playhouse, Beverly Hills, CA, 1978; Sweet Bird of Youth, Gene Dynarski Theatre, Los Angeles, CA, 1979; Lady House Blues, South Coast Repertory Company, Los Angeles, 1979; Vieux Carre, Beverly Hills Playhouse, 1983; Broken Eggs, Ensemble Studio Theatre, New York, NY, c. 1984; Andorra, American Jewish Theatre, New York, NY, 1984; Tamara, Il Vittoriale Theatre, Los Angeles, 1985; Foolin' around with Infinity, Los Angeles Theatre Center, 1987; The Women of Guernica, Fountain Theatre, Los Angeles, 1995; Freedomland, South Coast Repertory Theatre, 1997; and The Night of the Iguana, Fountain Theatre, 2001; also appeared in Playing with Fire, Hamlet, Kiss Me Good Morning, Museum, and Richard II. Actress in made-for-television movies, including Bride of Boogedy, American Broadcasting Company (ABC), 1987; Mortal Sins, USA Network, 1992; Locked Up: A Mother's Rage (also known as Other Side of Love), CBS, 1992; Shadow of Doubt (also known as Reasonable Doubt), Cinemax, 1998; and James Dean (also known as James Dean: An Invented Life), 2001. Played Irene Locatelli on television series Shannon, Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), 1981-82. Actress in films, including Yes Giorgio, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/United Artists, 1982; Cobra, 1986; Steal Big, Steal Little, 1995; My Brother Jack, Godrano Films, 1997; California Myth, 1999; and Beyond City Limits (also known as Rip It Off), 2002.

MEMBER: Theatre LA (member of board of governors).

WRITINGS:

(With Eddie Shapiro) The Actor's Encyclopedia of Casting Directors: Conversations with over 100 Casting Directors on How to Get the Job, foreword by Richard Dreyfuss, Lone Eagle Publishers (Los Angeles, CA), 2000.

Contributor to periodicals, including Back Stage West and Drama-Logue.

SIDELIGHTS: Karen Kondazian has been a Hollywood fixture for many years. She has been appearing on stage regularly since the late 1970s, mostly in southern California but also in New York. She briefly had a starring role on the television series Shannon in the early 1980s, and has appeared in several big-and small-screen movies. For several years Kondazian also put her entertainment experience to use by writing columns for the industry publications Back Stage West and Drama-Logue.

Some of those columns were included in Kondazian's book The Actor's Encyclopedia of Casting Directors: Conversations with over 100 Casting Directors on How to Get the Job. The book, which features profiles of and interviews with over one hundred of Hollywood's most important casting directors, is geared towards aspiring actors and actresses. By perusing the profile of a casting director with whom they might have a casting call, a performer could learn about that casting director's recent work, what he or she looks for in a performer, and his or her pet peeves. "There's also a picture of each [casting director] so you have some idea of whose hand to shake when you walk into the office," Behnoosh Khalili noted in a review for Back Stage West.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

books

Contemporary Theatre, Film, and Television, Volume 34, Gale (Detroit, MI), 2001.

periodicals

Back Stage West, June 29, 1995, Leigh Kennicott, review of The Women of Guernica, p. 7; October 23, 1997, Kristina Mannion, review of Freedomland, p. 7; February 1, 2001, Polly Warfield, review of The Night of the Iguana, p. 15; April 5, 2001, Behnoosh Khalili, review of The Actor's Encyclopedia of Casting Directors: Conversations with over 100 Casting Directors on How to Get the Job, p. 10.

Los Angeles Magazine, February, 1980, Dick Lochte, review of Sweet Bird of Youth, pp. 238-239; August, 1983, Dick Lochte, review of Vieux Carte, pp. 40-41; May, 1987, Dick Lochte, review of Foolin' around with Infinity, pp. 255-256.

Los Angeles Times, June 17, 1983, Robert Koehler, review of Vieux Carre, p. 15.

New Yorker, March 5, 1984, Edith Oliver, review of Broken Eggs, p. 109.

Variety, October 27, 1997, Brendan Kelly, review of My Brother Jack, p. 44.*