‏Akshay Kumar‏

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.Initially shunning acting, he found comfort in dance - more specifically, hip-hop - and so turned his attention to pursuing a career as a dancer under renowned London hip-hop academy, TkSpin. By 16, however, Akshay found his way back to acting with the help of his high school drama teachers, who cast him as Don John in 'Much Ado About Nothing', as part of the Shakespeare Schools' Festival.Now assured that acting was the way forward, he went on to work with the National Youth Theatre, as well as beginning to build 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 the 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), almost immediately followed by the role of Roshan Jabour, an Indian lascar, in ITV's 'The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: Beyond the Pale' alongside Paddy Considine. A month before he was due to graduate, Akshay won the role of Rahim in Season 4 of the Emmy-winning show 'Homeland' (created by Howard Gordon, 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' (awaiting 2016 release) starring Noomi Rapace, Orlando Bloom, John Malkovich and Michael Douglas.Akshay went on to work with the creators of 'Homeland' again on Season 2 of 'Legends' (U.K. premiere on Sky1 February 2016)