The Tribe

Peter Ganim is an American artist of Lebanese and Slovak heritage. From the moment he can pinpoint consciousness he has possessed a wicked imagination and a great pride in his cultural bloodline. With the inception of SheshBesh Creative, he has the opportunity, at long last, to put them into service together.

He spent his youth as many artists do - in curiosity and solitude; creating haunted houses, magic shows and backyard extravaganzas for the neighborhood. He directed his first production at the age of 15 and created his first adaptation a year later: a treatment of James Weldon Johnson's God's Trombones, a Festival award winner. By the age of 18 he had taught himself to speak French, Spanish, conversational Italian and German and possessed a good working knowledge of Latin, winning academic citations in all five languages at both the regional and national level.

In 1990 he toured the United States in a bilingual production of Molière's Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme and upon his return to Atlanta he landed the role of Pentheus in Euripides' The Bacchae at Actor's Express, a collaboration between artist and theatre that would ultimately span a decade. At Actor's Express, (founded by Chris Coleman), Mr. Ganim directed 10 productions, including the Southeastern premieres of Mamet's Oleanna and Elizabeth Egloff's The Swan, served as the Artistic Administrator for the Intern Acting program, and gave award-winning performances in Shaw's Man and Superman, Molière's The Misanthrope, William Shakespeare's Hamlet, Caryl Churchill's Cloud 9 and in the year 2000, Handler - the world premiere of the play by Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Schenkkan. During the last 4 years of his tenure at Actor's Express, Mr. Ganim served as Artistic Associate alongside his frequent collaborator and creative sibling, director and visual artist Nancy Keystone, the 2003 recipient of the prestigious Alan Schneider Award.

Throughout the 1990s, Mr. Ganim worked with many of the leading artists on the city's burgeoning theater scene, appearing onstage as well as directing at a number of venues including the Alliance Theatre, Seven Stages, and Theatre In The Square. For three summer seasons, he appeared with The Georgia Shakespeare Festival, most notably in 1997 as Iago in Nancy Keystone's production of Othello. Later that year he appeared in an evening of plays by Adrienne Kennedy and Maria Irene Fornes, under the direction of Anders Cato and the legendary Joseph Chaikin.

In 1995, he teamed up with colleagues Carolyn Cook and Chris Kayser to found Théâtre du Rêve, a French language theatre company. In 1999, after the resounding success of the first four annual productions, Ms. Cook and Mr. Ganim were invited to Paris by the French Government and Cultural Services for a week of immersion within the Parisian theatrical landscape, a great vote of confidence in such a young troupe.

In the summer of 2000, having considered a move to Paris and an assistantship with Jean-Pierre Miquel, the Administrateur Général of the Comedie Française, Mr. Ganim decided, rather, to relocate to New York City, where he presently resides. Over the past 8 years he has amassed a small cadre of film and television credits (including the requisite New York actor's appearances on Law & Order), as well as having appeared Off Broadway in the National Actors Theatre production of Luigi Pirandello's Right You Are! , founder Tony Randall's last stage appearance before his death in 2004. As a voiceover artist, Mr. Ganim operates PGVS, a voice services company, (www.peterganim.com) . He has narrated over 30 audiobooks as well as provided the voice for numerous radio and television commercials, corporate narrations, podcasts, cartoons and videogames.

A recipient of grants and funding from The Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation and Services Culturelles de France, Mr. Ganim is thrilled to bring his broad artistic skills to bear in the establishment of SheshBesh Creative, just as he is dedicated to carving a compelling and novel paradigm for the advancement of art and ideas in our contemporary American culture.