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Born and raised in New Jersey, Christopher Pickhardt is an actor (as well as a writer and filmmaker) who has been honing his craft since his teen years in both theater and film projects. But mostly film. In a way, Pickhardt has been acting his entire life - even without knowing it. His desire to entertain others has been with him since he was a child and it is this passion that fuels his immense drive to express himself and to entertain. Since childhood, Christopher has been immersed in movies. Cinema has served as a beacon for Christopher for as long as he can remember. Movies are not only his favorite pastime, but have always been his dream profession. To be able to work as a creative voice in Hollywood is the greatest job in the world to him and a lifelong journey he will never waiver from.
Christopher studied acting at the New School in New York City, William Paterson University in New Jersey and at the New Jersey School of Dramatic Arts. Most recently Chris has been studying under the marvelous Richard Kline, whose laid-back, yet structured workshop allows for tremendous freedom and growth. In college Christopher studied film-making and began producing short films including collaborative endeavors with other aspiring filmmakers. Down That Road and Back was Christopher's first major collaborative film experience, both as actor and co-producer. Down That Road and Back was a passion project of Director Christopher Sendrowski, a close friend and alumni of The School of Visual Arts in NYC. This intensive collaborative experience set the pace for what was ahead in the coming years.
The Turning point came in 2005, when Christopher began producing films for Crazy Elk Productions alongside Director and Co-Writer Jason J. Dale. In 2007, production on a low-budget, feature length independent film entitled Fight the Panda Syndicate (FTPS) began, which was filmed throughout New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. To date, "FTPS" has involved artistic contributions from over four-hundred different individuals from eight different states alongside Dale and Pickhardt, who together steered this long production from the page to completion. Over the next few years Christopher continued to work with talented filmmakers, honing his craft and finding exciting and challenging ways to be different with each new role. Some of Christopher's favorite parts were as the central villain Finnegan in The Wicked Ones alongside writer/director/star Sean Roberts of Philadelphia's Pitbull Shadow Productions, as Washington Roebling (the engineer of the Brooklyn Bridge) on The Travel Channel's Mysteries at the Monument and as compulsive gambler/drug dealer Joe Fama in I Married a Mobster on Investigation Discovery and of course as the sleazy nightclub owner and criminal Renard in Fight the Panda Sandicate.
Recently Christopher portrayed the real life tragic figure, Paul Witte in Investigation Discovery's second season of Evil Lives Here. This intense part took Christopher to places he has never gone before as an actor and served as a tremendous challenge for him. Christopher can also be seen in the gritty rural drug thriller "Traffickers," an award-winning indie film now available on Amazon Instant Video (also from director Sean Roberts) where Christopher plays the complex drug dealer Dog - a role which served as one of Pickhardt's most unique roles to date. Lastly Christopher played the calculating NYPD Detective Alec Roth in the series Blue City, which was created by writer/director Marcus Reyes, whose grand 12-episode vision is chock full of action, drama, twists and turns.
After several years solely as an actor-for-hire, Christopher began to feel that creative itch once again, so he decided to take control of his own fate and create some of his own content once again. Thus was the beginning of Film Banter, a little online movie review talk show starring Christopher and his longtime movie-loving friend Daryl K. Smith.
Together Daryl and Christopher discuss films new and old on the weekly basis and produce short bits and skits that often tie-in to the big films of the week. The show brought with it a great deal of discipline, effort, patience, creativity and a true passion for movies; which requires the guys to watch at least five films a week. Producing a new hour-long episode every week on a low budget without a large crew forced Christopher and Daryl to constantly think outside the box for ways to not only entertain their loyal streaming audience, but to also educate them on all things cinema. It has been a long road and together, they fight (both figuratively and literally) to conceive the best show possible. Film Banter can be found on YouTube.
