Monday, May 17, 2004 5:45 PM
BY KAREN OCAMB
Sept. 1, 2002 was a normal Sunday night in West Hollywood. Trev Broudy, a handsome 34-year-old voice-over artist, walked a friend to his car after the two spent a quiet evening watching videos. Broudy’s life was good: his career was on an upswing with a national commercial and his plans to return to acting.
But as he hugged his friend goodbye on the darkened street, a young African American man ran up to Broudy and wordlessly
swung a baseball bat to the back of Broudy’s head.
Drenched in blood and brain matter, Broudy was rushed
to Cedars Sinai Medical Center where emergency
room doctors didn’t give him much chance of survival.
During subsequent emergency surgery, doctors
removed a portion of Broudy’s brain, leaving him partially blind and with short-term memory loss. The assault received intense national and local media coverage, especially after District Attorney Steve Cooley decided not to file hate crime charges against the three men arrested for the violent robbery attempt. After a plea agreement was reached, the media turned to other stories and Broudy strug- gled to overcome severe depression at his abrupt change of life.
But Broudy is a fighter. With the help of friends, he has returned to voice-over work and has been advocating for the importation of the drug Citicoline, which has improved his ability to read. Made in Spain by Groupe Fererr, the experimental
neuro-enhancing drug was developed for stroke victims and, says Broudy, only two doctors in the United States, one of whom is at UCLA, apparent- ly understand its effi- cacy for other brain injuries
On June 12 Broudy will lend his services to the L.A. Press Club awards dinner. It will be the first time since his assault that this professional voice-over artist has announced an event “live.” Diners will hear his rich voice as the unseen announcer throughout the evening. Press Club board members, at a recent director’s meeting, expressed a warm welcome to Trev Broudy as announcer of the 2004 gala.
