BRIAN TELESTAI

Brian Telestai is an award winning American actor/audiobook narrator, musician, and writer based in the Pacific Northwest. His entertainment career started at age twenty, when he dropped out of college to sign a record deal with Epitaph Records as a member of the post-hardcore band I Am Ghost. He performed on seven tours throughout the USA, Canada, and UK, including the Vans Warped Tour. Soon, the band wound up on the front page of Myspace (kids these days will have no idea what a big deal that was!). Although he has a gold record on his wall, Brian is equally proud of his comedic ukulele cover of Lil Jon's "Get Low", as well as writing and staring in "LARP: The Musical".

He has been a listener of audiobooks since he was a child, where he would fall asleep to books on tape. Brian had a plastic briefcase full of audiobook tapes (and Ninja Turtles) that he would take everywhere, especially on family road trips. While listening on these scenic drives, a quiet dream sparked inside of him: someday narrating and recording in a studio of his own, surrounded by nature.

Brian started narrating and training in 2021 and has gone on to narrate five #1 bestselling titles in their respective Amazon genre categories. He works directly with indie authors as well as with traditional publishers. His voice lands somewhere between youthful edge and approachable charisma... like a rock concert that actually starts on time. He gravitates toward layered villains, razor-sharp comedic banter, and underdog arcs with teeth. He has been cast as the rockstar, the stern brunch daddy, the spiritual guru, the lovable jackass, the millennial professor, the jaded optimist, the friendly bartender, the holiday grump, and the tech CEO.

His nonfiction wheelhouse includes NDE memoirs, motivational self-help, music history, film critique, environmental science, men’s mental health, and leadership. In fiction, he thrives in LitRPG, fantasy, dystopian sci-fi, occult horror, thrillers, westerns, YA, and adventure/survival. 

Shortly after starting narration, Brian survived a near-death experience worthy of its own Netflix documentary. While out for a run on a rainy day along the Oregon beach, he fell and shattered his elbow, then lost consciousness as waves engulfed his body. After a mystical out-of-body experience, he woke up in the ocean. With his three working limbs, he swam to the nearest cliff, then managed to climb up partway onto a ledge before losing consciousness again. Waves crashed against him, waking him up, so he continued to climb, eventually able to reach safety. His nearby family rushed him to the hospital as hypothermia began to set in. After a surgery and intensive therapy, Brian is back with a renewed passion to create art that will outlive his joint replacement.

Off mic, Brian practices daily meditation, forest bathing, and stargazing along the Boise River. He has a deep love for National Parks and also enjoys hiking, rock band karaoke, writing musicals, playing mini golf, supporting his wife’s performing arts camps, and negotiating household power dynamics with tuxedo cats who believe they own the place. A daily consumer of documentaries, he loves to learn about the roots of consciousness and structure of reality, ancient civilizations, extraterrestrials, mega construction projects, and the full taxonomy of cats.

As an actor, you can see Brian in the historical drama The Chosen, as well as indie horror and sci-fi films, with selections at the Boston Sci-Fi Film Festival, Silicon Valley Film Festival, Culver City Film Festival, and Sun Valley Film Festival. Brian's theatrical credits include work with Dramatic Adventure Theatre (NYC/Tanzania), Idaho Shakespeare Festival, Migration Theory (Boise), and Alley Repertory Theatre (Boise). Brian has been featured in dozens of national and international publications, radio shows, and TV shows. 

To work with Brian Telestai, email him at Brian.Telestai@gmail.com.