By April Hall
Mayank Amin PharmD’09 (at right with director M. Night Shyamalan) entered USciences as a student of pharmacy. He graduated a star. Well, “star” may be too strong a word, but Amin certainly seems to be on his way.
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Amin was preparing for his final rotation before graduating with a doctor of pharmacy degree when he received a call. His photo had been submitted by his manager for a movie casting, and the casting director wanted to interview him.
The film was M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender, which was released this summer.
“I had the look they wanted. I was fitted for my costumes to be a member of the ‘Fire Nation,’” Amin recalled. “There was a lot of waiting, and I was pretty disinterested. I had decided I wasn’t going to come back the next day.”
But he did return the next day and before he knew it, he was no longer just another face in the crowd. His dance experience with the University’s South Asian dance team, DhamaaL, allowed for him to pick up martial arts routines quickly. He was soon a featured extra. Then Amin was plucked out of the crowd for his resemblance to another actor—The Last Airbender star Dev Patel—for whom he served as a stand-in. Add to that his modeling for both the 3D filming and the action figures created in connection with the film and it’s pretty certain that you saw a lot of Amin this past summer.
Amin would welcome more show business opportunities, but he’ll keep his day job with Walgreens in the meantime.
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