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My childhood felt like ALL THAT JAZZ—only set in Communist Romania."
Alex Rotaru is an internationally acclaimed, multi-award-winning filmmaker, professor, writer, and actor. Born in Romania to renowned parents—a playwright father, Eugen, and an actress mother, Maria—he relocated to the U.S. after a successful film acting career that earned him Romania’s highest national award for young actors. He then pursued a Physics degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, graduating at the top of his class with a perfect 5.0 GPA. Inspired by cinema studies at Paris-Sorbonne, Alex shifted focus and earned an MFA in Film from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, again graduating with top honors.
Following graduation, he directed several character-driven documentaries with strong educational themes, including the New York Times Critic’s Pick "THEY CAME TO PLAY" and SHOWTIME Networks’ "SHAKESPEARE HIGH," produced by Dana Brunetti, Dean Devlin, and Kevin Spacey. As a U.S. Department of State Cultural Ambassador through USC’s American Film Showcase, Alex traveled globally to lead cultural exchange programs in Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Angola, El Salvador, Romania, Lebanon, and Cyprus. He frequently serves on juries for film and theater festivals, most recently at the 2025 Austin International Film Festival.
Alex divides his time among directing documentaries, writing and editing screenplays, directing theater, extensive reading, and personal and professional development. He also works as the development and acquisitions executive for Tradition Pictures, writes fiction and non-fiction, and teaches film at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. As of January 2026, he is in post-production on the sci-fi thriller feature he wrote, directed, and produced, MISSING TIME, which explores the unreliability of human memory and subjective reality when faced with unexplained phenomena; "HOLD ON TO YOUR MUSIC: A Mother’s Legacy," about Mona Golabek—the NYC Drama Desk Award-nominated actor, pianist, and author—and her Holocaust survivor mother; and "A.I. SPY," which examines the long-term consequences of Valerie Plame’s covert career. These last two are among three recent feature-length biographical documentaries Alex created on unsung American heroines. The third, "ELVIS, ROCKY & ME: The Carol Connors Story," about the twice Oscar-nominated songwriter famous for "Gonna Fly Now," premiered at the 2026 Palm Springs International Film Festival and won Best of the Fest.
A recipient of a Christopher Award for PBS POV’s THE HOBART SHAKESPEAREANS, Alex is celebrated for his talent in eliciting profound emotion from interviewees and uncovering their deepest stories, demonstrated in his biographical films featuring U.S. Poet Laureates such as Louise Glück (2020 Nobel Prize in Literature), John Ashbery, W.S. Merwin, Anthony Hecht, and Kay Ryan.
He studied and audited acting classes with masters of Stanislavski, Strasberg, and Meisner techniques, including Peter Brook, Nina Foch, Martin Landau, Peter Strong, and John Hindman, and received vocal training from USC’s Virginia Sayre-Moraes. A SAG-affiliated actor, Alex voiced Pastor Richard Wurmbrand in the award-winning audiobook "Tortured for Christ," performed in the animated film poem "Cigarettes Until Tomorrow," and regularly appears in Shakespeare and musical theater readings in Los Angeles.
Alex serves as an Adjunct Professor of Film Directing at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts and at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, where he teaches directing actors and film production.
He resides in Beverly Hills with his son, Max.
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