Kunal  Nayyar

Entertainment.

Kunal Nayyar as Rajesh Koothrappali

Kunal Nayyar's role in THE BIG BANG THEORY is his first as a regular on a television series. He had a guest starring role on NCIS.
Nayyar is currently writing his first feature film, and his critically acclaimed play, "Cotton Candy," continues to run in New Delhi.

His theater acting credits include "Huck and Holden" at the Dahlia Theater in Los Angeles, for which Kunal was awarded best male lead in a play on the West Coast by the Garland Awards, and "Loves Labors Lost" at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford upon Avon, England.

Always a performer, Nayyar began acting in musicals and plays at a young age. After high school, he left India for the United States where he majored in business and took many acting classes at the University of Portland. In his senior year, he was nominated as the best actor in his play, "The Rose Tattoo," and was given an invitation to the American College Theater Festival (ACTF) to compete in an acting competition where he eventually won the Mark Twain Award for comic brilliance as well as a fellowship to the prestigious Sundance Theater Lab. He went on to receive his Masters in Fine Arts (MFA) from Temple University in Philadelphia.

Nayyar played badminton for his school team and competed at state level in the region of North India. He is also a fanatical fan of cricket. He is said to have a killer shoulder shimmy. According to Nayyar, wikipedia says his name means "one who sees beauty in everything" and it comes from a Himalayan bird known as the Painted Snipe.

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