"... Erik is one of the great undiscovered talents of the Thai Film Industry".
Erik was born in Bavaria, Germany on January 25th, 1973.
Born to a good family, he grew up involved in lots of activities and sports, learning to ski and ride motorcycles at a young age.
Like many martial artists, Erik was inspired even at a very young age by the late, great, Bruce Lee. His own studies into martial arts were not only augmented on the streets with first hand experience, but by 11 he was formerly training in gymnastics and karate. By 14 he was lifting weights and boxing, and with his impressive physique, started working as a bouncer. This gave his training another dimension in reality and hard, first hand experience.
It was from these experiences that Erik started searching for more effective ways and discovered what he perceived as the best, certainly one of the world's toughest martial arts, MuayThai (Thai Boxing). By the time he was 21, Erik had already fought as a professional in Thailand, Spain, and the United States, and soon took the World Middleweight Title in both the WMTA and the WMAC.
Unlike most people, Erik's commitment was so complete that he moved to Thailand to train and fight with the best to further his boxing carreer.
Answering an ad in the newspaper, Erik auditioned for and landed his first action scenes in Jackie Chan's THE MEDALLION. Pursuing his acting and stunt carreer with the fervor of everything else in his life, Erik launched in head first and soon picked up his second role playing a heavy in ONG BAK starring Tony Ja.
Erik is pursuing not only his acting, but is transitioning into producing and is readying himself to direct his own pictures in the near future.
Blood Ties Director Kely McClung's take on working with Erik...
I found Erik incredibly generous as an actor, and someone who saw the chance that BLOOD TIES could be a true showcase of not just his talents, but everyone else he was getting to work with. Besides being incredibly physical, Erik's gregarious, open personality made him such a pleasure to work with. And of course the fact that he speaks German, English, and Thai made him indespensible to our multi-national production.
"The fact that Erik played his own brother in Blood Ties grew out of the fact that I wanted to take advantage of his rapid growth as an actor."
Erik also stepped up as a defacto producer and introduced me to the Buddy Stunt Group who would become so crucial in raising the level of stunts and action thorughout the movie. He searched for locations, supplied vehicles, brought me multiple choices for his wardobe, and basically let me mold his performances to what I felt were his strengths. I truely believe that Erik is one of the great undiscovered talents of the Thai Film Industry.
Erik and I will work together again, and Erik is stepping up as a producer for Media Arts International Film Corporation and will play a major role in the distribution of BLOOD TIES and the upcoming production of the American/Thai/Australian production of BLACK HEART. He is also the Thai Line Producer for the short film TEARS.
Erik Markus Schuetz on IMDB
Please visit the THAI GALLERY for pics and don't miss some of the action on CLIPS AND MUSIC
For Slower Connections watch the Clips on YOUTUBE