Biography
Aleksandar Filimonovic is an actor, writer and producer, known for portraying the legendary American music producer Joe Bihari opposite Eddie Murphy in "Dolemite Is My Name", as well as Zolton opposite Julia Roberts and Sean Penn in "Gaslit". He has also appeared in the tv-shows "S.W.A.T.", "NCIS", "The Americans" and others, as well as many projects in the European cinematography. He is the writer and creator of adult-animated sitcom "Oaksterdum", the feature animation "Cellfie" and a live-action medieval epic adventure film "1389", which are in development.
Born in Belgrade to a sportsman father and an artist mother, Aleksandar naturally became interested in those areas of life in his earliest childhood. In the 90s his father's job took the family to Moscow, where with becoming fluent in Russian, as well as attending a mathematical lyceum No1140 and competing in mathematics at the famous Lomonosov University at only 11 years of age, Aleksandar also started training swimming, karate, ballroom dancing, singing, piano and guitar. What followed next was a move to London, where he attended North Bridge House School and started training football. After that, they returned to Belgrade, where he graduated from the Fourth Belgrade Gymnasium (high school) among the best students. During that period, he started taking acting classes, but also committed seriously to football.
Talent and hard work more than paid off and Aleksandar received a sports scholarship at the prestigious Royal Holloway University of London, where he graduated with a BSc in Computer Science at only 20 years of age, while playing football for his University and for the London's All-star team. During that period, he was scouted by a few Premier League clubs youth teams, but chose instead to complete his studies and continue the footballing career afterwards in Yugoslavia. However, parallel to his return to Belgrade, he was accepted to the famous local acting school and realized that he was more drawn to acting. He also passed the IQ test with a maximum score and became a member of MENSA (society of people with extremely high IQ levels), and also began studying Italian, Flamenco dancing and training kickboxing.
Not long after, he decided to test his luck by applying to the famous Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film institute in New York City. Upon acceptance and move to Manhattan, he mastered his acting abilities, with great compliments from the school's professors, including Hope Arthur, George Loros, Paul Calderon, Geoffrey Horne, Pennie DuPont, Robert Ellerman, Irma Sandrey, Mauricio Bustamante and others. He used his time spent in New York to sharpen various English dialects and performed in NY theaters utilizing over 10 different English accents. He also trained in dance at the well-known Dancesport academy under the instruction of the famed Paul Pellicoro, and also managed to find time for aikido with sensei Yoshimitsu Yamada and karate with sensei Masataka Mori, as well as gymnastics.
After completing his studies, he moved to Los Angeles, where he shot a few student and independent movies, did voice-over for an Electronic Arts video game and expanded his fighting skills by practicing Extreme Martial Arts (XMA) with the seven-time world martial arts champion, and the youngest master in the history of Black Belt Magazine, Mike Chat. Soon after, he received an offer to join the cast of the most watched tv series in the history of Serbian cinematography, so he moved back to Belgrade and lined up big roles in the shows "Village is Burning", "Montevideo", "White Lions", "Ravna Gora" and others. During this stay in Serbia, he passed his karate black-belt testing, started skydiving, and spent his free time waterskiing, skiing, snowboarding and ice-skating. He also completed lifeguard training and became active a year later, during the catastrophic floods that hit the Balkans, by taking part in various rescue operations at the most critical locations. That was when he became a member of the Red Cross and also wrote, composed and sang his first single "Fire in Heaven".
Soon after, he decided to return to Los Angeles believing that his talent would bear better fruit in Hollywood and that his desire to inspire people would reach a global stage.
In LA, he booked a major Hollywood movie right upon arrival, however even though the production signed off on his Green Card application, the papers arrived too late so he instead returned for another summer to Serbia to play one of the leading roles in the new tv-series "My Father's Killers", however after the first season and the arrival of the Green Card, he decided to move permanently to the USA.
Upon returning to Hollywood, Aleksandar became a member of SAG by being Taft-Harleyed to appear in the popular tv-show The Americans, where in addition to his on-screen role, he was booked for a voice-over in the same episode, where he curiously changed his voice to differentiate from his on-screen character. Soon after he booked another role in the legendary show NCIS.
That very same year, while working a side job to sustain himself in Los Angeles, he met a lady with a broken hand and helped her thanks to his Rescue Service training. Upon hearing that, her husband asked to meet him, and to Aleksandar's great joy and surprise, it turned out to be none other than Tom Petty. He offered to hire Aleksandar on the spot and expressed the desire to connect him in order to help him reach his acting dreams. Humbled by the kindness and the opportunity, Aleksandar accepted. He worked with the legendary rocker for the rest of the year until the Heartbreaker's lead singer's tragic passing.
Hurt by the loss of his new friend and needing the vent for the heavy emotions, Aleksandar decided to start writing and completed his first feature script for a medieval epic adventure titled "1389". Right after that he booked a role in "Dolemite Is My Name", starring opposite Eddie Murphy and Wesley Snipes.
Through a mutual friend Aleksandar met his creative partner Nemanja Colovic and the two joined forces to create the multi-award-winning scripts for the adult animated sitcom "Oaksterdum" and the feature animation "Cellfie". He then formed "Witty Wolf Productions" and directed and starred in a festival short film "Deep Into Love", alongside his friend, the legendary actor Deep Roy.
As the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world, the film industry came to a halt, however Aleksandar still managed to book a recurring role opposite Julia Roberts and Sean Penn in the tv-show "Gaslit", as well as a role in the tv-show "S.W.A.T.". He also made a few guest appearances in European projects.
Now that the pandemic and the Hollywood strikes are over, more great projects are expected.
