Ajay Naidu

Ajay Kalahastri Naidu born 12 February 1972 is an American actor Naidu was born in Evanston Illinois and raised in Chicago the son of Indian immigrants from Chittor District Andhra Pradesh to the US He attended Evanston Township High School As an actor he trained with the American Repertory Theaters Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard University His first professional acting job was the film Touch and Go released in 1986 which he won from an open call this in turn led to television jobsHe starred in the TVmovie Lady Blue 1985 as Paquito This was followed by an ABC Afterschool Special episode No Greater Gift 1985 where he played Nick Santana a 12year old boy with a terminal illness He then appeared in an uncredited role as Ahmed in the MacGyver TV series during the first season in episode To Be a Man in 1986 Other film credits when younger include Where the River Runs Black 1986 and Vice Versa 1988 Between 1988 and 1995 he worked extensively in classical theatre He returned to film acting in SubUrbia 1996 where he was praised for his role as the convenience store owner Nazeer Choudhury and for which he was nominated for an independent spirit award for best supporting actor On screen Naidu has appeared in the film Office Space as well as KPax π Requiem for a Dream Bad Santa The War Within American Chai The Guru Waterborne and Loins of Punjab Presents and many more He costarred in the sitcom LateLine and had guest starring roles on the television dramas The Sopranos in the episode entitled Big Girls Dont Cry as well as The West Wing In 1997 Naidu was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for his role in the independent film subUrbia Naidu has been working extensively with musicians from the Asian underground music movement for many years and his vocals have appeared on many records most notably Talvin Singhs mercury award winner OK In 2006 he directed his first feature film Ashes which came out in 2010 His most recent Theatre credits include A world tour of Shakespeares Measure for Measure with Simon McBurneys Theatre Complicite The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui alongside Al Pacino and The Little Flower of East Orange at New Yorks Public Theater He is currently engaged to actress Heather Burns Description above from the Wikipedia article Ajay Naidu licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia