Dileep Rao

Dileep Rao Biography

Dileep Rao is an American actor of Indian origin. Both his parents are of Indian descent, who migrated to US. As a Hollywood film actor, he is best known for playing the supporting roles of Dr. Max Patel in James Cameron's science fiction film Avatar (2009), and pharmacologist Yusuf in Christopher Nolan's thriller Inception (2010). His role as Yusuf in Inception earned him numerous nominations for best ensemble at various award functions such as Scream Award, Central Ohio Film Critics Association Award, Phoenix Film Critics Society Award and Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award. His role in horror film Drag Me to Hell (2009) is yet another noted role. Dileep has also acted in TV shows.

Dileep Rao was born on July 29, 1973 in Los Angeles, USA to Indian parents who got settled there. His mother is a physicist and his father, an engineer. He has one sister who works as college professor. After completing his graduation, he took M.F.A. from the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, before joining films. After studies, he started his acting career with 1995 famous play, Indian Ink by Tom Stoppard. After moving to Los Angeles he continued with his theater work. Berkeley Rep, South Coast Repertory and the Manhattan Theater Club are some of the theatre groups with which he worked during the same period.

In 2002, he won the American TV show, Jeopardy! He was selected from over 1600 entrants to play the NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle with Will Shortz. He marked his big screen debut with two films in 2009 - Drag Me to Hell and Avatar, and got noticed. He is to reprise his role as Dr. Max Patel in the next two sequels of Avatar, one of the most expensive Hollywood projects ever.

Published: N/A

Updated: July 13, 2018