Kunal Nayyar is a London-born Indian actor who moved to the United States and is now best known for the rôle of Raj Koothrappali on The Big Bang Theory.
At the University of Portland, he studied business but also took some acting classes and acted in plays, including plays by William Shakespeare. Although he was very good at acting, he nevertheless completed his business degree, to have something to fall on in case the acting thing didn't work out.
Nayyar's IMDb list of acting credits begins somewhat inauspiciously with the part of "Pizza Man" in S.C.I.E.N.C.E. in 2004 and an uncredited appearance on NCIS in 2007.
That same year, The Big Bang Theory premiered. Nayyar played the awkward Raj, a character initially afflicted with an inability to talk to women, whose lines were often whispered to Howard (Simon Helberg), who then relayed what Raj said, not always reliably.
From 2013 to 2016, Nayyar voiced Vijay Patel on Sanjay and Craig, father of the titular Sanjay. That was even as The Big Bang Theory was still in production (on Big Bang, Raj's father was played by Brian George).
As the show's popularity increased, so did Nayyar's salary, given that his character, Raj, despite his affliction, was a core character on the show. By the middle of the show's run, he was making $100,000 an episode, and later on that increased to $900,000 an episode. Completing his business degree was quite a wise decision even though the acting did work out.
As of 2022, Nayyar has a project in post-production and another one filming.
Some other credits not already mentioned
- The Mindy Project as Sendhil in one episode
- Mira, Royal Detective as Naveen
- Suspicion as Aadesh Chopra, eight episodes so far
- Trolls and Trolls 2 as Guy Diamond. Also the TV short Trolls Holiday.
- The Storied Life Of AJ Fikry as AJ Fikry
