Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective

Adeel Akhtar

British actor From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Remove ads

Adeel Akhtar is a British actor. He is known for his role in Murdered by My Father, for which he won the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor in 2017. He is also known for Utopia, Ali & Ava, Showtrial, and Sherwood (2022), for which he received the British Academy Television Award for Best Supporting Actor. He won the Outstanding Supporting Performance at the Children's and Family Emmy Awards for his role in Sweet Tooth in 2023.

Quick Facts Born, Education ...
Remove ads

Early life and education

Adeel Akhtar was born in London, to a Pakistani father and a Indo-Kenyan mother.[1]

He was educated at Cheltenham College[1] Junior School from 1991 to 1994 and then moved to Cheltenham College in Newick House from 1994 to 1999. He 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, in New York.[2]

Remove ads

Career

Summarize
Perspective

Akhtar's first major role was as the bumbling Muslim extremist Faisal in Chris Morris's film Four Lions.[3] Other comedic performances include Gupta in The Angelos Epithemiou Show,[4] Maroush in The Dictator[4] and Smee in Joe Wright 's Pan.[5]

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 Channel 4's Utopia.[6] He played shopkeeper Ahmed alongside Toby Jones in the BBC mini-series Capital,[7] and DS Ira King in the BBC's River.[8] Reviewing River in The Daily Telegraph, 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".[9]

In 2016, Akhtar appeared as Shahzad in the BBC one-off drama Murdered by My Father. He won the 2017 BAFTA award for Lead Actor for this role,[10] the first non-white actor to do so. In 2017 he also took part in the American romantic comedy film The Big Sick, playing the role of the protagonist's brother, Naveed.[11] He appeared as Rob Singhal in the acclaimed BBC miniseries based on John le Carré's The Night Manager.[12] In 2019, Akhtar appeared as Billy in the BBC Three series, Back to Life, written by Daisy Haggard and Laura Solon, returning in 2021 for the second series.[13] In 2024, Akhtar appeared as Sam Malik in the second series of BBC drama Showtrial.[14]

Remove ads

Filmography

Film

More information Year, Title ...

Television

More information Year, Title ...

Stage

Remove ads

Accolades

Remove ads

References

Loading content...

Further reading

Loading content...
Loading related searches...

Wikiwand - on

Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.

Remove ads