Rajkummar Rao

Rajkummar Rao (born Raj Kumar Yadav; 31 August 1984) is an Indian actor known for his work in Hindi films.

Rajkummar Rao was born as Raj Kumar Yadav on 31 August 1984 in Prem Nagar, Gurgaon, Haryana, India.

He had two older siblings and three cousins in his extended family.

His father, Satya Prakash Yadav, was a government employee in the Haryana revenue department, and his mother, Kamlesh Yadav, a homemaker.

In 2008, he enrolled in a two-year acting course at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune, and moved to Mumbai to pursue a film career.

Rao is a vegetarian.

After graduating from the FTII in 2008, Rao spent the next year visiting studios and meeting casting directors.

He has appeared in more than 30 films since 2010, and is the recipient of several accolades including a National Film Award, four Filmfare Awards and an Asia Pacific Screen Award.

After studying acting at the Film and Television Institute of India, Rao made his acting debut with the anthology film Love Sex Aur Dhokha (2010) and took on supporting roles in the films Gangs of Wasseypur – Part 2 and Talaash: The Answer Lies Within (both 2012).

Rao had been in a relationship with actress Patralekha Paul since 2010.

He married her on 15 November 2021 in Chandigarh.

He made a small, uncredited appearance as a news reader in Ram Gopal Varma's 2010 political thriller Rann.

After reading in a newspaper advertisement that mentioned Dibakar Banerjee was looking for newcomers for his found footage anthology film Love Sex Aur Dhokha (2010), he auditioned for the film and was selected.

The film consists of three stories; Rao appears in the second story opposite Neha Chauhan.

He played Adarsh, a supermarket supervisor who cons an employee into sleeping with him so he can record the act on a hidden camera and sell it.

To fit the part, he had to lose 6 kg in a month.

The film and Rao's performance met with critical acclaim.

It also turned out to be a profitable box-office venture.

After the success of his debut film, producer Ekta Kapoor offered Rao the lead role in the found footage horror film Ragini MMS (2011).

He was reluctant initially to accept it, as it seemed similar to his previous work, but he took up the offer at casting director Atul Mongia's insistence.

Despite an unfavorable critical response, the film was a box-office success.

His next release was Bejoy Nambiar's crime thriller Shaitan (2011), in which he played a slimy police officer.

Raja Sen, who was critical of the film, praised Rao's performance by calling him "reliably terrific".

He completed his 12th standard from S.N. Sidheshwar Senior.

Sec Public School, where he participated in school plays.

He graduated from The ATMA Ram Sanatan Dharma College, (University of Delhi) where he was simultaneously doing theatre with Kshitij Theatre Group and the Shri Ram Centre in Delhi.

Rao said that he decided to become an actor after seeing Manoj Bajpayee and being "highly influenced" by his performance.

Director Anurag Kashyap had liked Rao's performance in Love Sex Aur Dhokha and cast him in Gangs of Wasseypur – Part 2 (2012), a followup to his crime film Gangs of Wasseypur – Part 1.

He played the supporting role of Shamshad Alam for which he visited Wasseypur to perfect his accent and character.

He had his breakthrough in 2013 with critically acclaimed performances in the dramas Kai Po Che! and Shahid.

His portrayal of lawyer Shahid Azmi in the latter won him the National Film Award for Best Actor and the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor.

Rao's career progressed with supporting roles in Queen (2014), Aligarh (2015), and Bareilly Ki Barfi (2017), with the latter winning him the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor.

He changed his surname to Rao from Yadav in 2014 and also added an extra 'm' to his name.

He said the reason for this was, "Rao or Yadav, I can use either of the surnames as both are family names. As far as the double 'm' in the first name is concerned, it's for my mother. She believes in numerology."

He is formally trained in taekwondo.

He had lead roles in the independent films Trapped (2016) and Newton (2017), with the former winning him his second Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor and the latter earning him the Asia Pacific Screen Award for Best Performance by an Actor.

His mother and father died in 2016 and 2019 respectively.

In 2017, he appeared on Forbes India's Celebrity 100 list.

Rao had his highest-grossing release in the horror comedy Stree (2018), and his first English-film role in the satire The White Tiger (2021).

Further praise came for his starring roles in Ludo (2020), Monica, O My Darling (2022) and Bheed (2023), and he won the Filmfare Award for Best Actor for starring as a closeted gay man in Badhaai Do (2022).