Life and career

Suraj Sharma was born and brought up in a Malayali family in New Delhi, India. His father, Gokul Churai, is a software engineer from Thalassery, Kerala and his mother, Shailaja, is an economist from Palakkad, Kerala. He attended Sardar Patel Vidyalaya school. He has a younger brother, Sriharsh Sharma, who has also acted in two films, and a younger sister, Dhruvatara Sharma. With no prior acting experiences, he auditioned along with his brother for the role of Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel in Life of Pi (2012). Sharma went through several rounds of auditions before winning the title role. Director Ang Lee has stated that he selected Sharma primarily based on his expressive eyes and innocent appearance. According to him, Sharma had not only the emotion, but also the "look" of Pi. His "medium complexion" and "average build" were deemed perfect for the role. The film was met with critical acclaim, winning four Academy Awards; Sharma's performance received positive reviews, and he was nominated for the BAFTA Rising Star Award.

Since filming Life of Pi, Sharma returned to studying philosophy at St. Stephen's College, Delhi of Delhi University. He intends to continue working in filmmaking in some capacity. He is currently undertaking a Mass Communication course at New York University. In 2014, he portrayed Aayan Ibrahim, nephew of a terrorist, in season 4 of the Showtime political thriller series Homeland. That same year, he portrayed Rinku Singh in the sports biopic Million Dollar Arm. He then co-starred with Tony Revolori in the Indian comedy-drama Umrika, which premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. In 2016, he will appear in the Mongolian-American adventure drama film Burn Your Maps. He also begins filming his first Bollywood venture, Anshai Lal's romance comedy Phillauri, co-starring Anushka Sharma and Diljit Dosanjh.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2012	Life of Pi	Pi Patel
2014	Million Dollar Arm	Rinku Singh
2015	Umrika	Ramakant
2016	Burn Your Maps	Ismail	Post-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2014-2015	Homeland	Aayan Ibrahim	Recurring role; 6 episodes, Guest Star; 1 episode

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Work	Result
2012	British Academy Film Awards	Rising Star	Life of Pi	Nominated
	Critics' Choice Movie Awards	Best Young Actor/Actress		Nominated
	Las Vegas Film Critics Society	Youth in Film		Won
	Phoenix Film Critics Society	Breakthrough Performance On Camera		Nominated
2013	NAACP Image Awards	Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture		Nominated
	MTV Movie Awards	Best Breakthrough Performance		Nominated
		Best Scared as Sh*t Performance		Won
	Saturn Awards	Best Performance by a Younger Actor		Won
	Empire Awards	Best Male Newcomer		Nominated
	Online Film & Television Association Awards	Best Breakthrough Performance - Male		Nominated
2015	London Indian Film Festival	Pure Heaven Outstanding Young Talent	Himself	Won

[ Source: Wikipedia ]