Avan Jogia

Avan Tudor Jogia (born February 9, 1992) is a Canadian actor, singer, author, director and activist.

Avan Tudor Jogia was born on February 9, 1992, in Vancouver, British Columbia, the son of Wendy and Mike Jogia.

His father is a British Indian of Gujarati origin, while his mother is of English, German, and Welsh descent.

He is the younger brother of Ketan, a music producer in London.

Besides English, Jogia speaks some Gujarati and French.

Jogia was a student at Killarney Secondary School until age 17 when he left to pursue acting full-time, having already gained a number of small television credits.

His parents withdrew him from middle school in favour of home schooling.

He moved to Los Angeles, California on the trial-basis ultimatum that he would land a role within a six-month period – or return to schooling.

Jogia has cited actor Tim Curry as one of his early acting inspirations, particularly Curry's role as Long John Silver in the 1996 musical adventure comedy film Muppet Treasure Island.

He received recognition for portraying Danny Araujo in the television film A Girl Like Me: The Gwen Araujo Story (2006).

His first role came in 2006 when he portrayed Danny Araujo, the younger brother of teenage transgender woman Gwen Araujo, in the biographical television film A Girl Like Me: The Gwen Araujo Story, directed by Agnieszka Holland.

In 2007, he had a recurring role in The CW television sitcom Aliens in America as the character Sam, and appeared in the Canadian horror television movie Devil's Diary.

He next appeared in the 2008 Nickelodeon network original film Gym Teacher: The Movie, as Champ Sinclair.

Cast in the role of Ben Stark in August 2008, with production of the series' pilot episode completed by the conclusion of that year.

After moving to the United States in his late teens, he landed various television roles within series such as Caprica (2009–2010).

Numerous credits in television and cinema include Spectacular! (2009), Finding Hope Now (2010), Rags (2012), Ten Thousand Saints (2015), I Am Michael (2015) and Zombieland: Double Tap (2019).

He returned to the network the following year, starring in the 2009 film Spectacular! as Tajid.

From 2009 to 2010, Jogia had a recurring role in the television series Caprica, a spin-off of Battlestar Galactica, on Syfy.

In late 2009, he joined the cast of Nickelodeon television series Victorious.

Jogia played Beck Oliver, the boyfriend of Jade West (played by Elizabeth Gillies).

This was the actor's first main role in a television series.

Jogia had his breakthrough for playing Beck Oliver in the Nickelodeon sitcom Victorious (2010–2013), and rose to mainstream prominence for his roles as Danny Desai in the drama series Twisted (2013), Tutankhamun in the miniseries Tut (2015), Roman Mercer in the paranormal action series Ghost Wars (2017–2018) and Ulysses Zane in the comedy series Now Apocalypse (2019).

The role lasted from the series' inception in March 2010 to the conclusion of the fourth and final season of the show in 2013.

Jogia sang background vocals on several cast songs in the show's soundtrack, and had a brief prominent part in the song "Finally Falling" in the episode "Tori the Zombie".

Jogia also appeared as Beck in the Nickelodeon film, iParty with Victorious, a Victorious crossover movie with iCarly.

Throughout his tenure on Victorious, Jogia starred in various films.

In 2010, he appeared in the drama film Triple Dog, and the gang-crime film Finding Hope Now (filmed back in 2009) as the lead character, Santos Delgado.

Jogia later directed and starred in Alex, a short film; this marked his first project he directed.

His directorial debut came in 2011 with the short film Alex.

He stars as Leon S. Kennedy in the 2021 film Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City.

In 2011, Jogia co-founded the LGBT online organization Straight But Not Narrow, which seeks to shape the viewpoints of teenagers and adults on matters pertaining to the LGBT community.

During the following year, he appeared in the 2012 Nickelodeon television movie Rags, portraying Finn Covington.

Jogia was cast in the lead role of Danny Desai on the ABC Family mystery–thriller series Twisted (originally titled Socio), in October 2012.

The series pilot was greenlit in August 2012, and was filmed in October in New York City.

Actor Ben Kingsley is another of Jogia's inspirations; the two would later appear in the 2015 miniseries Tut, and work together on the 2016 short film Of Dogs and Men.

In 2019, he published his first book, Mixed Feelings, a series of short stories and poems about multiracial identity.

He hand painted the illustrations in the book.

Jogia and his brother Ketan make up the band Saint Ivory.

They released an album to complement the book also titled Mixed Feelings.

Jogia sings, as well as plays guitar, piano, and accordion.