Rajkummar Rao

Rajkummar Rao Biography

Personal Details

• Full Name: Rajkummar Rao (born Raj Kumar Yadav)
• Date of Birth: 31 August 1984
• Birthplace: Prem Nagar, Gurgaon, Haryana, India
• Nationality: Indian
• Profession: Actor
• Years Active: 2010 – Present
• Name Change: He changed his surname from Yadav to Rao in 2014 and added a second “m” to his first name, saying the spelling was for his mother, who believes in numerology.
• Awards: A National Film Award, five Filmfare Awards and an Asia Pacific Screen Award

Family Background

• Father: Satya Prakash Yadav, a government employee in the Haryana revenue department; he died in 2019
• Mother: Kamlesh Yadav, a homemaker; she died in 2016
• Siblings: Two older siblings
• Spouse: Patralekha (actress). They began dating in 2010 and married on 15 November 2021 in Chandigarh.
• Children: A daughter, born on 15 November 2025 — the couple’s fourth wedding anniversary

Education

• School: S.N. Sidheshwar Senior Secondary Public School, where he took part in school plays
• College: Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma College, University of Delhi, while also doing theatre with the Kshitij Theatre Group and the Shri Ram Centre in Delhi
• Acting Training: Graduated from the acting course at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune, in 2008, then moved to Mumbai

Career Highlights

• 2010: Made his film debut in the anthology Love Sex Aur Dhokha, directed by Dibakar Banerjee.
• 2012: Supporting roles in Gangs of Wasseypur – Part 2 and Talaash: The Answer Lies Within.
• 2013: Breakthrough year with Kai Po Che! and Shahid. His portrayal of the lawyer Shahid Azmi won him the National Film Award for Best Actor and the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor.
• 2014–2017: Queen and CityLights (2014), Aligarh (2015), Trapped (2016), and Bareilly Ki Barfi and Newton (2017). Bareilly Ki Barfi won him the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor, and Newton won him the Asia Pacific Screen Award for Best Performance by an Actor.
• 2018–2020: His commercial breakthrough came with the horror comedy Stree (2018), followed by Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga and Judgementall Hai Kya (2019) and Ludo (2020).
• 2021–2023: Roohi (2021), Badhaai Do and Monica, O My Darling (2022) and Bheed (2023). Badhaai Do, in which he played a closeted gay man, won him the Filmfare Award for Best Actor.
• 2024: Four releases — Srikanth, a biopic of the visually impaired industrialist Srikanth Bolla, which won him another Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor; Mr. & Mrs. Mahi; Stree 2; and Vicky Vidya Ka Woh Wala Video. Stree 2 is the highest-grossing film of his career and was the highest-grossing Hindi film of 2024.
• 2025: The fantasy comedy Bhool Chuk Maaf, in which he played a man trapped in a time loop on his wedding day, and the action film Maalik.
• 2026: The Netflix comedy Toaster, which he also produced.

Recent Activities

• Starred in and produced the Netflix comedy Toaster (2026).
• He and Patralekha became parents to a daughter on 15 November 2025, their fourth wedding anniversary.
• Bhool Chuk Maaf (2025) was delayed by the 2025 India–Pakistan conflict and a distribution dispute, but performed well financially on release. Maalik, for which he built muscle and grew out his hair and beard to play a gangster, was a box-office failure.
• Critics have noted that after Stree 2 he has increasingly been cast in similar small-town comic roles.

Awards List