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IMDbPro

Ajay Naidu(I)

  • Actor
  • Director
  • Writer
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Ajay Naidu at an event for K-PAX (2001)
The 2021 CAAMFest Audience Award-winning film debut by Iman Zawahry takes place in Jackson Heights, Queens where two sisters and their fresh-off-the-boat cousin try all the conventional ways to earn the love and respect of their mother.
Play trailer2:00
Americanish (2021)
7 Videos
13 Photos
Naidu's first professional acting job, which he won from an open call, was a leading role opposite Michael Keaton in the 1986 film Touch and Go (1986). This was followed by an ABC Afterschool Specials (1972) episode, No Greater Gift (1985), where he played Nick Santana, a 12-year-old boy with a terminal illness. Naidu then appeared in the MacGyver (1985) TV series' first-season episode, To Be a Man (1986) in 1986.

Other early film credits include Where the River Runs Black (1986) opposite Charles Durning and Vice Versa (1988). Between 1988 and 1995 he worked extensively in classical theatre.

Naidu returned to film acting in 1996 with Richard Linklater's SubUrbia (1996), for which he was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male and competed against the likes of Samuel L. Jackson, Roy Scheider and Jason Lee.

On screen, Naidu starred in the cult film Office Space (1999), as well as appearing in such films as K-PAX (2001), SUBWAYStories: Tales from the Underground (1997), Requiem for a Dream (2000), Bad Santa (2003), The War Within (2005), The Guru (2002), Waterborne (2005), and Loins of Punjab Presents (2007). He co-starred as a series regular in the sitcom LateLine (1998) and had guest starring roles on the television dramas The Sopranos (1999), The West Wing (1999), and Bored to Death (2009).

Naidu has been working extensively with musicians from the Asian underground music movement for many years as a breakdancer and an M.C. His vocals have appeared on many records, most notably Talvin Singh's mercury award winner "OK".

In 2006, Naidu directed his first feature film Ashes (2010) which had its release in 2010 and for which he won Best Actor accolades from the MIACC Film Festival in New York and the London Asian Film Festival.

Naidu's most recent theatre credits include The Kid Stays in the Picture at the Royal Court Theatre, The Master and Margarita with Complicite, a world tour of Shakespeare's Measure for Measure with Complicite, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui alongside Al Pacino, directed by Simon McBurney and The Little Flower of East Orange alongside Ellen Burstyn at New York's Public Theater directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman. In 2001 Naidu's solo theatre piece Darwaza was a sold-out hit at New York's Labyrinth Theatre.
BornFebruary 12, 1972
  • More at IMDbPro
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    • Agent info
    • Resume
BornFebruary 12, 1972
IMDbProStarmeter
See rank
  • View contact info at IMDbPro
  • Awards

Photos13

Ajay Naidu in Requiem for a Dream (2000)
Ajay Naidu and Jaimie Alexander in Blindspot (2015)
Richard Dean Anderson, Persis Khambatta, and Ajay Naidu in MacGyver (1985)
David Herman and Ajay Naidu in Office Space (1999)
David Herman, Ron Livingston, and Ajay Naidu in Office Space (1999)
David Herman, Ron Livingston, and Ajay Naidu in Office Space (1999)
Ajay Naidu at an event for The Kindergarten Teacher (2018)
Maggie Gyllenhaal, Ajay Naidu, Samrat Chakrabarti, Sara Colangelo, Anna Baryshnikov, Rosa Salazar, Sam Jules, Stefaniya Makarova, and Parker Sevak at an event for The Kindergarten Teacher (2018)
Heather Burns and Ajay Naidu
Ajay Naidu at an event for K-PAX (2001)
Ajay Naidu at an event for K-PAX (2001)
Ajay Naidu as Vik Donowitz in "3 Days of Normal."

Known for

Version A, 1 sheet
Office Space
7.6
  • Samir
  • 1999
Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges in K-PAX (2001)
K-PAX
7.4
  • Dr. Chakraborty
  • 2001
Billy Bob Thornton, Bernie Mac, Tony Cox, and Brett Kelly in Bad Santa (2003)
Bad Santa
7.1
  • Hindustani Troublemaker
  • 2003
Charlie Sheen, Leslie Nielsen, Denise Richards, Queen Latifah, Simon Rex, Anthony Anderson, Anna Faris, and Eddie Griffin in Scary Movie 3 (2003)
Scary Movie 3
5.5
  • Sayaman
  • 2003

Credits

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IMDbPro

Actor

  • The Zombie Wedding
    • Post-production
  • Walmart's Black Friday Deals for Days: Case of the Mondays
  • Eddie Redmayne and Jessica Chastain in The Good Nurse (2022)
    The Good Nurse
  • Neil Patrick Harris in Uncoupled (2022)
    Uncoupled
  • Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway in WeCrashed (2022)
    WeCrashed
  • The Guilty (2021)
    The Guilty
  • The Magnificent Meyersons (2021)
    The Magnificent Meyersons
  • Christian Slater, Alec Baldwin, and Joshua Jackson in Dr. Death (2021)
    Dr. Death
  • Actor Trade's Virtual Table Read Series (2020)
    Actor Trade's Virtual Table Read Series
  • Godfrey, Lillete Dubey, Ajay Naidu, Shenaz Treasury, Mohammed Amer, Aizzah Fatima, Kapil Talwalkar, and Salena Qureshi in Americanish (2021)
    Americanish
  • Uncle (2021)
    Uncle
  • Thorp (2020)
    Thorp
  • Chloë Levine and Kimie Muroya in Antarctica (2020)
    Antarctica
  • Social Distance (2020)
    Social Distance
  • Nyambi Nyambi and Rebecca De Ornelas in The Sleepless (2020)
    The Sleepless
  • The Dark End of the Street (2020)
    The Dark End of the Street

Director

  • Piper Perabo, Ajay Naidu, and Faran Tahir in Ashes (2010)
    Ashes

Writer

  • Piper Perabo, Ajay Naidu, and Faran Tahir in Ashes (2010)
    Ashes

Videos7

Official Trailer
Trailer 2:00
Official Trailer
Crazy Famous
Trailer 1:44
Crazy Famous
Bad Santa: Blu-Ray
Trailer 1:43
Bad Santa: Blu-Ray
Today's Special
Trailer 2:23
Today's Special
You Are Here
Trailer 2:06
You Are Here
Touch And Go
Trailer 1:35
Touch And Go
Office Space: Special Edition
Trailer 1:57
Office Space: Special Edition

Personal details

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    • February 12, 1972
    • Evanston, Illinois, USA
    • Heather Burns2012 - present (1 child)
  • Other works
    Plays in "The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui" play by Bertolt Brecht (Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts, Pace University, New York City, New York, USA).

Did you know

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  • Trivia
    Engaged to Heather Burns, 30, who has been his girlfriend since they were students at Evanston Township High School.

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