Rajkummar Rao is a popular Award Winning Indian actor, and is the recipient of several awards, including a National Film Award, three Filmfare Awards, and an Asia Pacific Screen Award. He has appeared in more than 30 films since 2010.
Rajkummar Rao was born as Raj Kumar Yadav on 31 August 1984 in Prem Nagar, Gurgaon, Haryana, India. He had two older siblings and three cousins in his extended family. His father, Satya Prakash Yadav, was a government employee in the Haryana revenue department, and his mother, Kamlesh Yadav, a homemaker. He completed his 12th standard from S.N. Sidheshwar Senior. Sec Public School, where he participated in school plays. He graduated from The Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma College, (University of Delhi) where he was simultaneously doing theatre with Kshitij Theatre Group and the Shri Ram Centre in Delhi.
After graduating, he moved to Mumbai for a film career and made his film debut with the 2010 experimental anthology film Love Sex Aur Dhokha. After starring in brief roles in several of the highly successful Hindi films of the following two years, he achieved success for his breakout role in 2013 with the drama film Kai Po Che!, for which he was nominated for the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor.
That same year, he was awarded the National Film Award for Best Actor and the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Shahid Azmi in the biographical drama Shahid. In 2014, Rao played the leading man in the successful dramas, Queen and CityLights. Rajkummar Rao received critical acclaim for portraying a journalist in the biographical drama Aligarh, which earned him a second nomination for Best Supporting Actor at Filmfare. Rao said that he decided to become an actor after seeing Manoj Bajpayee and being “highly influenced” by his performance.
Rajkummar Rao changed his surname to Rao from Yadav in 2014 and also added an extra ‘m’ to his name. He said the reason for this was, “Rao or Yadav, I can use either of the surnames as both are family names. As far as the double ‘m’ in the first name is concerned, it’s for my mother. She believes in numerology.” He is also formally trained in taekwondo.
