title: How to get Akka actor by name as an ActorRef?
body: <p>In Akka I can create an actor as follows.</p>
  
  <pre><code>Akka.system(app).actorOf(Props(classOf[UnzipActor]), name="somename")
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Then I am in a different class, how can I get this actor?</p>
  
  <p>I can get an <code>ActorSelection</code></p>
  
  <pre><code>lazy val unzip: ActorSelection =
    Akka.system.actorSelection("user/" + "somename")
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>However, a <code>ActorSelection</code> is not what I want; I want an <code>ActorRef</code>. How can I get a <code>ActorRef</code>?</p>
  
  <p>I want to have an <code>ActorRef</code> since I wish to schedule a call to an <code>ActorRef</code> using the scheduler.</p>
  
  <pre><code>Akka.system(app).scheduler.schedule(
    5 seconds, 60 seconds, mustBeActorRef, MessageCaseClass())
  </code></pre>