Adeel Akhtar (born 18 September 1980) is a British actor. In 2017, he won the

British Academy Television Award for Best Actor This is a list of the British Academy Television Awards for Best Actor. The Best Actor award was initially given as an "individual honour", without credit to a particular performance, until 1962, when Rupert Davies won for his performance in ''Maig ...

for his role in '' Murdered by My Father''. He was also nominated for a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor for his role on

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

's ''

Utopia A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book '' Utopia'', describing a fictional island societ ...

'', as well as a

British Academy Film Award The British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTA Film Awards is an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to honour the best British and international contributions to film. The cere ...

nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role for '' Ali & Ava''.

Early life

Akhtar was born in London, to a Pakistani father and a Kenyan mother. He was educated at

Cheltenham College ("Work Conquers All") , established = , closed = , type = Public school Independent School Day and Boarding School , religion = Church of England , president = , head_label = Head , head = Nicola Hugget ...

Junior School from 1991 to 1994 and then moved to Cheltenham College in Newick House from 1994 to 1999. He originally completed a degree in law from Oxford Brookes University in 2002, but decided to follow his passion and change to acting, training at the Actors Studio Drama School, then within

The New School The New School is a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for progressive thinkers. ...

, in New York.

Career

Akhtar's first major role was as the bumbling Muslim

extremist Extremism is "the quality or state of being extreme" or "the advocacy of extreme measures or views". The term is primarily used in a political or religious sense to refer to an ideology that is considered (by the speaker or by some implied share ...

Faisal in Chris Morris's film ''

Four Lions ''Four Lions'' (originally titled ''We Are Four Lions'') is a 2010 British political satire black comedy film directed by Chris Morris (in his directorial debut) and written by Morris, Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong. The film, a jihad satire foll ...

''. Other comedic performances include Gupta in ''The Angelos Epithemiou Show'', Maroush in '' The Dictator'' and Smee in

Joe Wright Joseph Wright (born 25 August 1972) is an English film director residing in Somerset, England. His motion pictures include the literary adaptations ''Pride & Prejudice'' (2005), ''Atonement'' (2007), ''Anna Karenina'' (2012), and '' Cyrano'' ( ...

's'' Pan''. Akhtar has also won acclaim for his dramatic performances: in 2015, he was nominated for a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor for his 2014 role as Wilson Wilson on

's ''

''. He played shopkeeper Ahmed alongside

Toby Jones Tobias Edward Heslewood Jones''Births, Marriages & Deaths Index of England & Wales, 1916–2005.''; at ancestry.com (born 7 September 1966) is an English actor. Jones made his film debut in Sally Potter's period drama '' Orlando'' in 1992. H ...

in the BBC mini-series '' Capital'', and DS Ira King in the BBC's ''

River A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of w ...

''. Reviewing ''River'' in ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'', Michael Hogan wrote, "This series was beautifully written by Abi Morgan, stylishly directed, and most of all, superbly acted. The quieter, less showy supporting players also shone. Not just stalwarts ..but fresher faces: Adeel Akhtar as River's endlessly patient sidekick and Georgina Rich as his psychiatrist". In 2016 Akhtar appeared as Shahzad in the BBC one-off drama '' Murdered by My Father''. He won the

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...

BAFTA award for Lead Actor for this role, the first non-white actor to do so. In 2017 he also took part in the American romantic comedy film ''

The Big Sick ''The Big Sick'' is a 2017 American romantic comedy film directed by Michael Showalter and written by Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani. It stars Nanjiani, Zoe Kazan, Holly Hunter, Ray Romano, Adeel Akhtar, and Anupam Kher. Gordon and Nanj ...

'', playing the role of the protagonist's brother, Naveed. He appeared as Rob Singhal in the acclaimed BBC miniseries based on

John le Carré David John Moore Cornwell (19 October 193112 December 2020), better known by his pen name John le Carré ( ), was a British and Irish author, best known for his espionage novels, many of which were successfully adapted for film or television. ...

's '' The Night Manager''. In 2019, Akhtar appeared as Billy in the critically acclaimed BBC Three series, '' Back to Life'', written by Daisy Haggard and

Laura Solon Laura Madalene Solon (born April 1979) is an English screenwriter, comedian, actress, and winner of the 2005 Perrier Comedy Award. She was the second woman to win as a solo performer, after Jenny Eclair in 1995. Background Solon was raised in G ...

, returning in 2021 for the second series.

Filmography

Film

Television

Stage

*2008: '' The Colonel'' as Zero (Theatre Absolute) *2008: ''In My Name'' as Zaeem ( Old Red Lion &

Trafalgar Studios Trafalgar Theatre is a new West End theatre in Whitehall, near Trafalgar Square, in the City of Westminster, London. It is set to open in spring 2021 following a major multi-million pound restoration project aiming to reinstate it back to its ...

) *2009: ''

Wuthering Heights ''Wuthering Heights'' is an 1847 novel by Emily Brontë, initially published under her pen name Ellis Bell. It concerns two families of the landed gentry living on the West Yorkshire moors, the Earnshaws and the Lintons, and their turbulent re ...

'' as Yusuf (

Tamasha Theatre Company Tamasha Theatre Company is a British theatre company founded in 1989 by director Kristine Landon-Smith and actor-writer Sudha Bhuchar. ''Tamasha'' ( mr, तमाशा) is an Indian word meaning "spectacle". The company has brought contemporary ...

) *2010: '' Satyagraha'' (Ensemble) ( Improbable theatre) *2011–2012: ''

Hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

'' as Guildenstern and Francisco (

Young Vic Theatre The Young Vic Theatre is a performing arts venue located on The Cut, near the South Bank, in the London Borough of Lambeth. The Young Vic was established by Frank Dunlop in 1970. Kwame Kwei-Armah has been Artistic Director since February 201 ...

)

Accolades

References

External links

* *
Adeel Akhtar
o
Stages of Half Moon
{{DEFAULTSORT:Akhtar, Adeel 1980 births Living people English male film actors English male stage actors English male television actors English people of Pakistani descent Actors Studio alumni 21st-century English male actors Male actors from London English people of Kenyan descent British film actors of Pakistani descent People educated at Cheltenham College Best Actor BAFTA Award (television) winners