Richard Abanes known as Richie Abanes in connection to his work as a professional singer, dancer, and actor—is a bestselling and award-winning American writer. As an author/journalist, Abanes specializes in the area of socio-religious issues, cult

Cult

The word cult in current popular usage usually refers to a group whose beliefs or practices are considered abnormal or bizarre. The word originally denoted a system of ritual practices...

s, the occult

Occult

The word occult comes from the Latin word occultus , referring to "knowledge of the hidden". In the medical sense it is used to refer to a structure or process that is hidden, e.g...

, world religions, the entertainment

Entertainment

Entertainment consists of any activity which provides a diversion or permits people to amuse themselves in their leisure time. Entertainment is generally passive, such as watching opera or a movie. Active forms of amusement, such as sports, are more often considered to be recreation...

 industry, and pop culture. Since 1994 he has authored/co-authored twenty books (as of 2009) covering a broad range of topics.

In 1997, for his work on "intolerance" in North America (see American Militias: Rebellion, Racism, and Religion), he received an award from The Gustavus Myers

Gustavus Myers

Gustavus Myers was an American journalist and historian who published a series of influential studies on capital formation. His name is associated with the muckraking era of American literature.-Early years:...

 Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights. Also in 1997, Abanes won the Evangelical Press Association

Evangelical Press Association

The Evangelical Press Association is a professional association serving the Christian periodical publishing industry. Its members produce some 300 periodical titles with a combined circulation of over 20 million. EPA is a religious and educational non-profit corporation under the laws of the state...

's Higher Goals In Journalism Award for his article on various religions in America.

As a lecturer on diverse social, religious, and historical topics, he has been a guest speaker at various institutions, including the Simon Wiesenthal Center

Simon Wiesenthal Center

The Simon Wiesenthal Center , with headquarters in Los Angeles, California, was established in 1977 and named for Simon Wiesenthal, the Nazi hunter. According to its mission statement, it is "an international Jewish human rights organization dedicated to repairing the world one step at a time...

, Caltech, Mensa

Mensa International

Mensa is the largest and oldest high-IQ society in the world. It is a non-profit organization open to people who score at the 98th percentile or higher on a standardised, supervised IQ or other approved intelligence test...

, California Baptist University

California Baptist University

California Baptist University is a private, Christian, liberal arts university located in Riverside, California, United States. Originally founded in 1950 as California Baptist College, it is controlled by the California Southern Baptist Convention, an organization affiliated with the Southern...

, and Biola University

Biola University

Biola University is a private, evangelical Christian, liberal arts university located near Los Angeles. Biola's main campus is in La Mirada in Los Angeles County, California. In addition, the university has several satellite campuses in Chino Hills, Inglewood, San Diego, and Laguna Hills.-...

. Abanes also has been interviewed on hundreds of radio/TV programs and networks including BBC, MSNBC

MSNBC

MSNBC is a cable news channel based in the United States available in the US, Germany , South Africa, the Middle East and Canada...

, CNN

CNN

Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...

, Extra

Extra (TV series)

Extra is an American entertainment television news program covering events and celebrities which debuted on September 5, 1994 in syndication. It is produced at Victory Studios in Glendale, California by Telepictures Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television Distribution...

, and Hard Copy

Hard Copy

Hard Copy is an American tabloid news television show that ran in syndication from 1989 to 1999. Hard Copy was aggressive in its use of questionable material on television, including gratuitous violence....

 as an authority on cults/religion, pop culture, and the entertainment industry.

Early career

Abanes began his career as a professional singer, dancer, and actor (with Screen Actors Guild

Screen Actors Guild

The Screen Actors Guild is an American labor union representing over 200,000 film and television principal performers and background performers worldwide...

 and Actors Equity Association) in local theater (Rockford, Illinois

Rockford, Illinois

Rockford is a mid-sized city located on both banks of the Rock River in far northern Illinois. Often referred to as "The Forest City", Rockford is the county seat of Winnebago County, Illinois, USA. As reported in the 2010 U.S. census, the city was home to 152,871 people, the third most populated...

) at the age of thirteen. He began doing semi-professional theater within a year, and during his high school years he was featured in many productions throughout Northern Illinois including West Side Story, Fiddler On the Roof

Fiddler on the Roof

Fiddler on the Roof is a musical with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and book by Joseph Stein, set in Tsarist Russia in 1905. It is based on Tevye and his Daughters by Sholem Aleichem...

, and You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown

You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown

You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown is a 1967 musical comedy with music and lyrics by Clark Gesner, based on the characters created by cartoonist Charles M. Schulz in his comic strip Peanuts...

. He also became a featured dancer in the Rockford Dance Company, while simultaneously studying dance in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

 with professional companies such as The Hubbard Street Dancers and Joel Hall Studios.

Abanes subsequently moved to New York, where he landed a role in the "International" and "Bus & Truck" companies of the hit Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 musical

Musical theatre

Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...

 A Chorus Line

A Chorus Line

A Chorus Line is a 1975 musical about Broadway dancers auditioning for spots on a chorus line. The book was authored by James Kirkwood, Jr. and Nicholas Dante, lyrics were written by Edward Kleban, and music was composed by Marvin Hamlisch....

. Soon afterward, Abanes was given a featured dance role on Broadway in the musical Dreamgirls. In the years that followed, Abanes was featured in national television commercials such as Canada Dry

Canada Dry

Canada Dry is a brand of soft drinks owned since 2008 by the Texas-based Dr Pepper Snapple Group. For over a century Canada Dry has been known for its ginger ale, though the company also manufactures a number of other soft drinks and mixers...

, Wendy's

Wendy's

Wendy's is an international fast food chain restaurant founded by Dave Thomas on November 15, 1969, in Columbus, Ohio, United States. The company decided to move its headquarters to Dublin, Ohio, on January 29, 2006. It has been owned by Triarc since 2008...

, and Nissan. He also played the lead role in an ABC Afterschool Special

ABC Afterschool Special

The ABC Afterschool Special is an American television anthology series that aired on ABC from 1972 to 1996, usually in the late afternoon on week days. Most of the episodes were dramatic presentations of situations, often controversial, of interest to children and teenagers. Several episodes were...

, co-starred in the film Rappin, and starred in the Bill Moyers

Bill Moyers

Bill Moyers is an American journalist and public commentator. He served as White House Press Secretary in the United States President Lyndon B. Johnson Administration from 1965 to 1967. He worked as a news commentator on television for ten years. Moyers has had an extensive involvement with public...

 PBS special titled "The Constitution." While in New York, he continued his studies in dance with American Dance Machine, Alvin Ailey

Alvin Ailey

Alvin Ailey, Jr. was an American choreographer and activist who founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York. Ailey is credited with popularizing modern dance and revolutionizing African-American participation in 20th century concert dance...

 Dance Center, American Ballet Theater, Luigi's Jazz Center, Rick Atwell, and Ann Reinking

Ann Reinking

Ann Reinking is an American actress, dancer, and choreographer. She has worked extensively in musical theatre, both as a dancer and choreographer, as well as appearing in film.-Biography:...

.

Abanes eventually began to pursue a second career as a full-time freelance journalist. This led to his first book, Prophets of the Apocalypse: David Koresh and Other American Messiahs, which was co-authored with three other writers and published in 1994 (Baker Books).

As of 2009, in addition to being an active author/journalist, Abanes was again working in field of show business as a singer, dancer, and actor.

In July 2010, he performed the role of Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar

Jesus Christ Superstar

Jesus Christ Superstar is a rock opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber, with lyrics by Tim Rice. The musical started off as a rock opera concept recording before its first staging on Broadway in 1971...

with Rockford's Bonzi Productions.