Dian Bachar

Colorado's Eternal Third Man

Dian Bachar didn't sign the million-dollar deal with Comedy Central when his classmates created four foul-mouthed kids from a small Colorado town. While Trey Parker and Matt Stone built a media empire, Bachar stayed in the shadow of massive success. He was the face that made his friends' jokes work on screen.

In 1993 he appeared in Cannibal! The Musical as George Noon. That college film, made on a shoestring budget, laid the groundwork for a brand of humor Bachar understood better than anyone. But his role wasn't the brains of the operation; it was the body ready to take the hit.

He was the group's official punching bag.

Then came 1997 and Orgazmo. He played Choda Boy, the enthusiastic sidekick who perfectly captured his place in the industry. Bachar served as the physical counterpoint, the supporting player who made the joke land hard. He didn't chase the spotlight because he knew his value lay in the reaction, in the small gesture after the lead character's outrageous behavior.

His on-screen presence throughout the nineties was steady across his friends' productions. He appeared in several episodes of South Park, voicing supporting characters, although his biggest impact would come outside animation. Bachar agreed to be the target of every humiliation in one of the most memorable comedies of the late decade.

The Squeak Scolari Curse

In 1998 BASEketball was released, directed by David Zucker. The film was a box office flop, grossing just 7 million dollars against a 23 million dollar budget. Still, the character Kenny “Squeak” Scolari gave Bachar a lasting place in video store pop culture. The script treated him like human garbage, and he turned that abuse into comic art.

And the bet paid off with cult audiences.

That role let him move into big studio productions without giving up his place as a character actor. In 1999 he appeared in Galaxy Quest, one of the smartest spoofs ever made about the Star Trek phenomenon. There he shared the set with Alan Rickman and Sigourney Weaver, proving he could hold his own in a production with a 45 million dollar budget.

But the phone doesn't always ring with offers from major studios. Bachar quickly learned that the industry forgets actors who don't fit the leading man or star comic mold. So he turned to independent film and short films, where he had much greater creative control over his characters.

Resilience Under the Spotlight

During the first decade of the 2000s, his work centered on episodic appearances and low-budget projects. In 2006 he worked on Electric Apricot: Quest for Festeroo, a mockumentary directed by Les Claypool, the frontman of the band Primus. It was a logical move for an actor who has always felt at home on the fringes of the conventional.

The industry changed, and Bachar adapted to new digital distribution formats. In 2011, he appeared in the web series The Nightmare Hollow and stayed connected to his old college friends' circle with occasional appearances. He never regained the visibility he had in the nineties, but he maintained a steady work ethic in the alternative circuit of Los Angeles.

In 2021 he joined the cast of Night of the Animated Dead, an animated version of George A. Romero's classic. Two years later, in 2023, he worked on The Adventures of Lucky Pierre, a comedy that revives the guerrilla filmmaking spirit that marked his early career. He is a survivor who understands that acting is a trade of resistance, not just red carpets.

Dian Bachar still lives in Los Angeles and manages his own career, far from the big talent agencies. In 2024, his filmography exceeded 60 titles across film and television, most of them produced on budgets under $5 million.