A native of Los Angeles, Val Lauren began his acting career by joining the repertory theater company "Playhouse West", where he directed and starred in original plays written by and co-starring Scott Caan.Val made the transition to independent films. He played several supporting character roles before landing his first starring role as self destructive orphan "Max Modeen" in the Sundance Institute film "True Love", for which he won an Audience Award for Best Actor.Val also Guest Starred on many television shows including "Hawaii 5.0.","The Mentalist","Criminal Minds","CSI N.Y."and recurring roles on "NCIS LA" and "24". He went on to star in "Dallas 362" as manic gambling addict "Christian Potter" opposite Jeff Goldblum, Scott Caan Sean Hatosy and Selma Blair to rave reviews.Val made his Writing and Directorial debut with "HELP". He also played the lead character in the drama about a young man on the night that he sets out on a mission to save his dying Mother's life. "HELP" completed it's festival run, winning *2 Jury Prize Awards *Audience Award *2 Best Actor Awards *Audience Award for Best Actor *Best Director *Best Story *Best Screenplay. "HELP" went on to win the 1st "Openfilm" Grand Prize, earning him a $50,000 cash award, plus feature financing by Openfilm, to be produced by James Caan and Robert Duvall.Val has starring roles in two films set to be theatrically released in 2015. "DOTH" (Cannes Film Festival) and "The Last Knights"(Lionsgate) opposite Clive Owen and Morgan Freeman.Recent theatrically released films include "Int. Leather Bar."(Sundance & Berlinale Premieres) and "SAL"(Venice Film Festival Premiere), where Val played the title role as "Sal Mineo", one time teen idol who went on to become the youngest actor to win two Academy Award nominations for his work in "Rebel Without a Cause" and "Exodus". The bio-pic was written and directed by James Franco, based on the book "SAL" by Michael Gregg Michaud.Next, Val is attached to star as Elia Kazan in "Streetcar" opposite James Franco as "Tennessee Williams". The film will be directed by James Franco and chronicles the experiences of Elia, Tennessee and Marlon Brando as they went about mounting the hit Broadway play, "A Streetcar Named Desire." Show less «