Star Trek

Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead

Against the Ropes

Shadow Creature

Nightmare Alley

A.J. Verel (born March 2) is an American kickboxer, martial artist, actor, stuntman raised in South Buffalo, NY.  
Verel is a former Toughman Champion and Light Heavyweight & Middleweight sport karate and kickboxing Champion. In 1992 he won the World Kickboxing Association's (WKA) Middleweight title. Verel holds black belts in five different martial arts and as co-captain of the U.S. National Martial Arts and N.A.C.K. (North American Champions Karate) Demonstration Teams won two gold medals. Verel is an inductee into the Pro Martial Art/MMA Hall of Fame.
Verel returned to the Original Toughman Contest in 2000 as the shows referee for the FOX televised reality show titled Toughman World Championship Series which ran for five seasons on the FX Network. In June 2010 Verel was named the United States Delegate for the 'World Kickboxing League" (WKL) for all Ring Sports along with Ambassadors "The Jet" Rick Roufus and "The Dragon" Don Wilson.
In 2003, Verel suffered a sudden and tragic loss when his manager, and older brother Christopher M. Verel, was shot and killed by a person with mental illness. The individual was armed with a semi-automatic rifle when he opened fire on a group of people fishing on Buffalo's outer harbor waterfront. Verel a proponent for 2nd amendment gun rights has fought to secure better safeguards in keeping guns out of the hands of those with mental illness and advocated for a memorial for his brother. The street where he was murdered now bears his name. In 2018 Verel lost another brother who perished in a house fire.
Since retiring from sports Verel is President/Chairman of two non-profits and working as Vice-President for employee & labor relations and chief contract negotiator for a large medical group that has multiple Hospitals with 12,000 employees.
In addition, Verel remains active working on and appearing in movies, producing televised events, occasionally providing interviews and expert commentary, most recently in the Alec Baldwin accidental shooting death of cinematographer  Halyna Hutchins and injury to director Joel Souza on the movie set of “Rust”.

A.J. Verel

Acted in

Star Trek

Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead

Against the Ropes

Shadow Creature