Sometimes, an actor is made for a role. Other times, the role is made for the actor.

That’s exactly what happened when Andrew Ratliff walked in to audition for the feature length movie “Loss” that premiered at AMC Southcenter last week.

“Loss” is a action suspense drama that follows the life of two orphaned brothers who get roped into an underground crime syndicate. The film took more than three years to complete with a budget of about $7,000.

According to producer and screenwriter Somma Rath, Ratliff’s role was written in after the production team met him.

“When we met Andrew, he gave us a different vibe that what we were looking for, which was a hero vibe,” Rath said. “He gave us an antagonist vibe, which led to us wondering, ‘Hey, why not add that element?’”

Before Ratliff joined the cast, the project was supposed to be a 15-minute short film. But once his role was written into the script, it quickly became feature length.

When he’s not busy playing a crime syndicate antagonist, this Renton resident is busy teaching students martial arts and running his modeling management company.

But before he had his hands full with acting, teaching and managing models, Ratliff said he felt “lost in life.” In need of a fresh start, he moved from a small town in California to Washington when he was 21.

In California, where he taught karate to kids. Currently a third degree black belt himself, Ratliff said karate gave him the discipline and structure he lacked as a child.

“I was a kid who needed some direction,” he said. “A kid who got into a lot of trouble and a lot of fights. There were gang affiliations in my neighborhood. It was very difficult to grow up that way. There were a lot of racist people in my neighborhood. Being a young black man, I did not know how to deal with that; it was a lot. When I joined martial arts, it gave me a focus for my energy.”

Ratliff had advanced quickly in the art form; by 19 he had his first black belt and a couple of grand championships under his belt. He soon became a teacher and helped his instructor run his dojo.

“It was easy for me to help kids who were troublesome because I was a troublesome kid,” he said.

But after teaching for eight years, he hit a roadblock with his instructor and left for Washington in need of a fresh start.

“When I moved here, I didn’t want to teach karate anymore,” he said. “Even though I was really good at it, I didn’t want that to be the only thing in my life. So I got into modeling and acting.”

After a few google searches and hard work, Ratliff successfully entered the business. But he couldn’t shake off his martial arts training. He brought his discipline, work ethic and love for coaching to the job. Soon, he started his own modeling management company, Ratliff Industries.

“The more I got into it, the more I started helping people out, the more I started networking, it was like dominoes,” he said. “Once you get involved in the industry, you either keep going or you come to a stop.”

But the dojo kept calling his name. After some prodding from his mom, Ratliff founded his own school in Renton two years ago.

Gosoku-kai Karate Academy — GKA for short — has over 100 students. It currently meets at Renton Technical College, but Ratliff said they will be moving into their own building soon.

“A lot of people really liked the way I work with kids,” he said on why GKA became instantly successful. “We haven’t done any online advertising except Facebook. At this point, we’ve created this many students with no real money put in advertising, but our teaching reputation.”

According to Nancy Polston, Ratliff has helped teach 7-year-old son Joshua discipline and focus.

“Joshua was so impulsive and unresponsive to my instructions, I decided to sign him up for karate,” Polston said. “He was immediately drawn to Sensei Andrew’s full of life personality. Andrew is funny yet strict. How he is able to make the kids laugh and keep them well disciplined is a gift I wish I had. Joshua loves going to karate and I’ve seen a complete change in his behavior since.”

“It’s about using martial arts to teach them not to be good fighters, but to control themselves,” Ratliff said on his teaching style.

Even with a successful martial arts studio and a modeling management company, Ratliff doesn’t intend to step away from the spotlight anytime soon. In fact, he’s still planning on going for auditions and is currently in talks with Rath and the company that made “Loss” about being part of their upcoming project.

“As an actor, [my role in “Loss”] pushed me to a limit that I hadn’t gone before,” Ratliff said. “This is why I love this stuff because as a black belt, I enjoy things that push me forward.”