And now for something different, laced with unabashed favoritism...

One of my best friends & fellow ex-Microsoftie, Kiran Rao, will be appearing in an episode of Alias this Sunday, Dec 1, 9pm in the San Francisco market ("check your local times and listings"!).  After leaving the software industry behind (sort of...), Kiran's actually been pretty deeply involved in the TV/movie biz on both sides of the camera -- his acting resume is here and his IMDB entry is here.   Kiran's also the webmaster of Hollywood Masala - a gathering point for individuals interested in South Asians in the US/Hollywood entertainment biz.

His acting headshot + a quick summary of the episode he appears in:

Dec 01 Passage-Part 1 Sydney, Jack and Irina must put aside their differences and go undercover as a loving family in order to seize six nuclear warheads from an unfriendly nation. Meanwhile, Sloane announces to a suspicious staff that Mr. Sark will be working with SD-6; Vaughn may be forced to fire Will from his CIA research assignment; and Sloane is contacted by an unknown group claiming that Emily is still alive. Cast: Jennifer Garner, Victor Garber, Ron Rifkin, Michael Vartan, Lena Olin, Bradley Cooper, Merrin Dungey, Carl Lumbly, Kevin Weisman, David Anders , Pasha Lychnikoff, Terry O'Quinn, Rahul Gupta, Shishir Kurup, Keith Lal, K.T. Thangavelu , Richard Whiten, Kiran Rao, Senthil Kumar. Director(s): Ken Olin. Producer(s): JJ Abrams, John Eisendrath, Ken Olin. Writer(s): Debra J. Fisher, Erica Messer.

He plays the role of an, ahem, "Freedom Fighter", in the "unfriendly nation."  Given a few of the other, uh, ethnic names in the episode cast, he ain't fighting alone.   And, given usual Hollywood plot & ethnicity antics, I'd venture that his chances of appearing in Part 2 of this episode are slim.   

Nevertheless, it would be cool round up people to watch (or at least Tivo) to support the cause!  When he's big, remember where you heard about him first!

P.S.  Kiran wrote in "...And yes, Jennifer Garner really *is* that hot in person!"