RAMON DE OCAMPO plays Hamlet at the Antaeus Theater in Glendale, California as it launches its new theater season.
Ramon is one of the busiest Filipino actors in the U.S. as he has done plenty of TV shows and movies in Hollywood.
He did importante roles in such TV shows as Notorious, Guidance, 12 Monkeys, The West Wing, Medium, Killer Instinct, Sons of Anarchy, Major Crimes, HAWAII 5-0, NCIS: New Orleans, CSI: Cyber, the Player, Castle, Bones, CSI and Gang Related.
His films includes: “30 Nights”, “Happy Endings”, “xXx: State of the Union” (with Ice Cube, Willem DaFoe, Samuel L. Jackson), “Hamlet” (with Campbell Scott), and “I am I” (with Jason Ritter).
Ramon has done other Shakespearean roles for the Glendale based troupe: Angelo/ Claudio in measure for measure, Hal in Henry IV, Banquo in Macbeth and Edgar in King Lear.
As one of the organizations teaching artists for 10 years, he took part in a program bringing the Bard’s works to juvenile detention centers. "The kids were incredibly responsive" he says. "Themes like tragic flows and revenge resonate with them.”
He is also the narrator and host of Antaeus The Zip Code plays now in their third season. He has done a lot of reading for audio books, like "Diary of a Wimpy Kid".
On the challenge of playing Hamlet, he says: “I think anyone who's played Hamlet realizes it's the biggest role they'll ever play. I’ve counted 1,500 lines and at a certain point all you can do is find a way to bring yourself to it and not look at other actors’ Hamlets.
"I thought it's such a big role and I better learn it first. There has to be something that connects and resonates in a place that's real for you. I'm moved by the drawn-out family relationships, the idealization of a father and the struggle with a mother and what happens inside that fight.
"There's a big sequence with Hamlet and his mother that asks if mothers and sons can come to terms with their faults and understand each other, especially after a tragedy.”
Ramon was born in the Philippines, the son of former finance secretary Robert Ocampo who’s the current Chairman of Veterans Bank.
An accomplished Television, Film, Stage, and Voice actor, Ramón was raised just outside of Washington, DC, in Virginia. He graduated with a BFA (summa cum laude) in Acting from the prestigious Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama in Pittsburgh. Here's hoping Ramon can come to Manila someday and perform Hamlet in one of our local theaters.