Biography

Born and raised in East London, Akshay's first exposure to the stage came at 11 years old as a result of his mother's concerns over his 'painfully shy' nature, and so enrolled him in classes at a local stage school.

He was first was cast as Don John in 'Much Ado About Nothing', as part of the Shakespeare Schools' Festival. He quickly went on to work with the National Youth Theatre and began building professional screen credits, with small roles in ITV's Lewis and BBC's Silent Witness.

At 18, he secured a place on the BA Acting course at The Drama Centre London. That summer he also landed the role of Aasef in the BBC 2 mini-series 'White Heat' (starring Sam Claflin, Claire Foy and Hugh Quarshie) and was approached by United Agents mid-production. Subsequently, he signed with United Agents one week prior to starting at The Drama Centre.

Akshay's final year at the Drama Centre proved to be a busy one: securing his first lead role as the quiet, tech-savvy genius, Cam, in Unstoppable Entertainment's teen-party film 'Legacy'. Shortly after, he played Nicki Veer to Ray Panthaki's Jay Veer in the romantic comedy 'One Crazy Thing' (directed by Amit Gupta, starring Ray Panthaki and Daisy Bevan), followed by the role of Roshan Jabour in ITV's 'The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: Beyond the Pale' alongside Paddy Considine. A month before graduation, Akshay was cast as Rahim in Season 4 of the Emmy-winning U.S. show 'Homeland' (starring Claire Danes, Mandy Patinkin, Rupert Friend and Suraj Sharma).

Akshay's first Hollywood feature film credit came in the form of a small, but essential role, in Michael Apted's 'Unlocked' (May 2017) starring Noomi Rapace, Orlando Bloom, John Malkovich and Michael Douglas.

Since then, Akshay has gone on to work steadily between British and American Film & TV, as well as a handful of short and independent films - some of which he has co-produced.

- IMDb mini biography by: Akshay Kumar