Biographie
Rajeev Colton (Wickramaratne) was born December 30, 1992 in Colombo, Sri Lanka. He then moved to Kandy with his parents and two sisters. At 6 years old, he watched Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park, and his deep and ever-growing love for Film (and Television) began. Rajeev dabbled heavily in theatre to appease his passion for acting, and a took part in and shot several short films in Sri Lanka to attend to his other love; writing and producing. Wanting to further his knowledge and hone his craft, he went on to pursue a degree in Film at Evangel University in Springfield, MO and graduated in 2016 with a BFA in Film.
During his time at Evangel, Rajeev wrote, directed and starred in several award winning short films, namely Champion of Fire (Actor, 2013), Crying Wolf (Editor, 2013), Small Town (Co-Director 2014), Operation: Abacus (Director 2015), Elicit (Writer, 2015), Bloodties (Assistant Director 2016), Skylar (Producer, 2016). Rajeev also played major roles in several stage productions, namely The Curious Savage (Titus Savage), Oliver Twist (Bill Sykes), Pygmalion (Col. Pickering) and The Crucible (John Proctor).
After returning to Sri Lanka, post graduation, Rajeev began working at one of the capitol's leading creative content firm, YAMU TV, as it's first Video Producer; however, he realized that his knowledge and skill-set acquired was not deep enough to fulfill his ultimate goal of producing major motion pictures and television for Sri Lanka. This led Rajeev to pursue higher studies, which he did at Chapman University (Top 4th Film School in the USA). Rajeev was taught by the industry's finest; Studio VPs, Academy Award winning writers, and award winning journalist. Everything from Entertainment Law, Marketing, Studio Management and so on, Rajeev acquired a diverse set of skills needed before graduating with an MFA in Production for Film and Television in 2022.
During his time at Chapman, Rajeev was also selected to be the Teaching Assistant to two time Academy Award winning Iranian filmmaker, Asghar Farhadi, during a semester long Masterclass program. Rajeev also produced numerous award winning shorts while at Chapman, namely Anirudh (2022), Taquito Patrol (2022), Match (2022) and Dadu (2022) starring Brian George (Seinfeld, The Big Bang Theory).
Post graduation, Rajeev was recommended for the role of Director's Assistant on Marvel Studios' Captain America: Brave New World, and after an interview with director Julius Onah, was selected.
Rajeev resides in California, working under contract at Marvel Studios. He hopes to work on a couple more projects (at several studios) in order to gain more experience and building a network in hopes of returning home to implement everything in his capability to take Sri Lankan cinema to the next level. God and his faith comes first, followed by his family and close friends.
Rajeev hopes to be Sri Lanka's first Academy Award winner.
