Remeber Dudley from "Different Strokes"?
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Shavar Ross was born on March 4, 1971 in the South Bronx, New York. Unfortunately for him his parents separated when he was only six years of age. Shavar's mom, along with Shavar and his sister moved to Macon, Georgia. Meanwhile, his father Henry took off to Los Angeles, California to pursue an acting career.
At age seven, Shavar began to inquire to his mom about his father. After finding out that his father was in Hollywood, Shavar wanted to get to know his father and deeply desired to visit him.
It was arranged for Shavar to visit his father during his school's Christmas vacation. He finally enjoyed being with his father. Shavar's father took him to many places around Hollywood including to a play in which a young Kim Fields ("Facts of Life") starred in. After the play, as everyone came out, Shavar was immediately noticed by a Hollywood talent agent (Evelyn Shultz). She told Shavar's father that he should seriously consider doing commercials and becoming an actor. Evelyn gave him her business card and Shavar literally became an overnight sensation.
By January of 1979, just a couple of weeks into his Christmas vacation, Shavar had already booked a national Amtrak commercial. By the end of that year, he booked two more national commercials, starred on "The White Shadow", appeared twice on "Benson" and had done two episodes of "Alice".
In early 1980, Shavar was cast out of more that 250 children to play Gary Coleman's best friend on the hit NBC show Diff'rent Strokes in which he eventually shot over 40 episodes.
Through the years Shavar has starred in over 100 television and film projects and has appeared in over 40 commercials. He's starred in many film and television shows such as MacGyver, "The Young & the Restless", Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, "Chicago Hope", Native Son, "The Bold and Beautiful", Friday the 13th Part 5, Family Matters, "What's Love Got To Do With It?", Magnum P.I. and Designing Women to name a few.
Three years after his father's sudden death of a heart attack at age 38, feeling without a father again, Shavar became a born-again Christian at the age of 20 years old. Shavar then decided to attend bible college at The Ministry Training Institute, an auxiliary of Crenshaw Christian Center in Los Angeles.
After 4 years of ministry training, in 1996 Shavar founded and pastored a non-denominational church in Hollywood, California called The Alive Church in which he pastored for 4 years.
Shavar, now 33, is currently founder of Tri-Seven Entertainment, a fully integrated global entertainment company which develops, acquires, produces, broadcasts and distributes cutting-edge and morality-based live-action and animated television series, specials and motion pictures for a global audience. Currently Shavar is also establishing himself as an up and coming film & television director. "Soul to Take", Shavar's 26-minute digital short marked his directorial debut and the film has recently received distribution through Simmons Lathan Media Group. "A Taste of Us" will mark his feature film directorial debut. Shavar has been married for 12 years to Jacqueline Ann Ross and has an eleven year old son named Seven and a daughter Chelsea Lynn due in March 2005.
