KUNAL NAYYAR

Kunal Nayyar is an actor and writer, probably best known for his role as Rajesh Koothrappali in US sitcom The Big Bang Theory. Born in Hammersmith, London, Nayar was brought up in New Delhi. Nayyar moved to the US in 1999. Nayyar married Neha Kapur in 2011, former Miss India turned fashion designer. The couple met in 2008 when Nayyar was visiting family in New Delhi. Nayyar landed his breakthrough role in The Big Bang Theory in 20017, just a year after graduating with a master's degree in fine arts from Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. This year, Nayyar and his The Big Bang Theory colleagues performed some hits from the musical Grease at the 24th Annual 'A Night at Sardi's' event to benefit the Alzheimer's Association and its work for both treating and spreading awareness of the disease. To date the annual event as raised from that $28 million. According to Forbes, Nayar earns an estimated $800,000 an episode. Currently he is the joint third highest paid male TV actor in the world. He published "Yes, My Accent is Real" in 2015, a memoir via a collection of essays, put together from various scribblings of thought and musings on things like airplane napkins. In 2012 he was nominated for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series at the Screen Actors Guild Awards. An avid cricket fan, Nayyar produced and narrated Beyond All Boundaries (2013), a documentary on the 2011 World Cup of Cricket. Nayyar worked cleaning toilets because it paid better than minimum wage and no one else wanted to do it.

Praise for Kunal Nayyar

"Quick witted, a touch goofy, always endearing, genuinely thoughtful and sincere, Nayyar may not know his "string theory" from his "double slit," scientific concepts Dr. Raj grasped before he was potty trained, but he is a charmed and charming cornucopia of real." - Todd Aaron Jensen, December 3 2015 .