Akshay Kumar (British actor)

Akshay Kumar (born 1994) is an English actor. On television, he is known for his roles in the ITV war drama The Halcyon (2017) and the CW series Pandora (2019–2020).

Early life
Kumar was born in the East London Borough of Redbridge. When he was 10, his mother enrolled him in a Saturday stage school. Kumar decided to pursue acting professionally when he performed Shakespeare for the first time at age 15 and subsequently joined the National Youth Theatre. He also took up dancing. He trained at the Drama Centre London, and took a pause from his studies when he was cast in Homeland.

Career
In 2012, Kumar made both his television debut and his feature film debut in an episode of the BBC Two drama White Heat and the film adaptation of The Telemachy respectively.

Upon leaving drama school, Kumar joined the recurring cast of the Showtime thriller series Homeland for its fourth season as Rahim, a Pakistani medical student, which aired in 2014. He then appeared in the second season of the TNT crime drama Legends as Ifti Bulfati, as well as the films Legacy and One Crazy Thing.

In 2017, Kumar had a main television credit as barman Adil Joshi in the ITV World War II drama The Halcyon. He also had small roles in the CTV series The Indian Detective and the film Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Kumar played FBI agent Ansh Ramachandra in the 2019 crime thriller film Inside Man: Most Wanted with Aml Ameen, Rhea Seehorn, and Roxanne McKee.

After making a guest appearance in the first season of the CW science fiction series Pandora, also in 2019, Kumar joined the main cast as student Jett Annamali for its second season in 2020. He played Ray in the FX on Hulu miniseries Devs and starred in Syndrome at the Tristan Bates Theatre. For the latter, he and the rest of the cast were nominated for an Off West End Award. Kumar starred in the 2023 film Double Blind with Millie Brady. That same year, he appeared in the romantic drama film Beautiful Disaster and the ITVX sitcom Count Abdulla.

Personal life
In 2021, Kumar wrote an article for Backstage on a two-year period of his career when he worked a day job.