Josh Pais

Pais launched his screen career at the turn of the 1990s, and his first major credit is still his most-cited one. In the 1990 live-action *Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles*, he originated the role of Raphael — the hot-headed, sarcastic turtle who gets the best lines — and did something none of the other turtle performers did: he handled both the physical performance inside the suit and the character's voice himself (Perplexity). That combination of commitment and specificity is a decent preview of how he'd approach everything that followed. Through the 1990s and into the 2000s, Pais built a dense résumé of supporting film work and television appearances that don't always get their due. His recurring role as Assistant M.E. Borak on *Law & Order* ran across 15 episodes between 1990 and 2002 (Wikipedia) — a span long enough to become genuinely familiar to the show's devoted audience. On the film side, he turned up in *Scream 3* (2000), *Music of the Heart* (1999), *A Beautiful Mind* (2001), *It Runs in the Family* (2003), *Little Manhattan* (2005), and *Find Me Guilty* (2006), working with directors and casts that ranged from mainstream Hollywood to more independent territory (Wikipedia, Perplexity). *The Station Agent* — one of the quieter, more character-driven films of that era — stands out as the kind of project that tends to attract actors who care about the work more than the marquee. The later stretch of his career brought *Motherless Brooklyn* (2019) and a recurring role as Stu Feldman on *Ray Donovan*, while Pais also expanded into directing and writing. His documentary *7th Street* (2003) won awards and reflected a personal investment in New York's changing landscape. His book *Lose Your Mind* extended that investment into the craft of acting itself. Over 150 credits across film and television — that's not a supporting career. That's a career.