Nawazuddin Siddiqui (born 19 May 1974) is an Indian actor, known for his works in Hindi

cinema.[1][5] An alumnus of the National School of Drama, Siddiqui's breakthrough role was
with Anurag Kashyap's Black Friday (2007), which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Indian Film
Festival of Los Angeles and was a nominee for the Best Film (Golden Leopard) award at
the Locarno Film Festival. He is a four time filmfare award nominee, winning once. He earned
three nominations for Best Supporting Actor and one nomination for Filmfare Critics Award for
Best Actor at the Filmfare Awards, winning once for Best Supporting Actor for The Lunchbox.[6]

Contents

 1Early life

 2Career

 3Filmography

 4Television

 5Personal life

 6Awards

 7References

 8External links

Early life[edit]

Siddiqui was born on 19 May 1974 in Budhana, a small town and tehsil in Muzaffarnagar
district, Uttar Pradesh, India,[7] into a zamindari Muslim family of Lambardars.[1][2] He is the eldest
of his eight siblings.[8]

He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from Gurukul Kangri

Vishwavidyalaya, Haridwar. Following this, he worked as a chemist in Vadodara for a year, before
leaving for Delhi in search of a new job. Once in Delhi, he was instantly drawn to acting after
watching a play. In pursuit of securing admission at the National School of Drama (NSD) in New
Delhi, he acted in over ten plays with a group of friends, to fulfill one of the criteria for
admission.[1]

Career[edit]

Siddiqui went to the National School of Drama, New Delhi.[9] After graduating from NSD in 1996,
he moved to Mumbai.[10]

Siddiqui made his Bollywood debut in 1999, with a small role in the Aamir
Khan starrer Sarfarosh.[11] He then appeared in Ram Gopal Varma's Shool (1999), Jungle (2000);
and Rajkumar Hirani's Munnabhai MBBS (2003). After moving to Mumbai he tried to get work in
television serials, but did not achieve much success.[12][13] He did a short film, The Bypass in 2003,
where he appeared with Irrfan Khan.[14] Beyond that between 2002–05, he was largely out of
work, and lived in a flat he shared with four other people, and survived by conducting occasional
acting workshops.[12] In 2004, which was one of the worst years of his struggle, he couldn't pay any
rent. He asked an NSD senior if he could stay with him. The senior allowed him to share his
apartment in Goregaon if he was willing to cook meals for him.[15]
In 2009, he appeared in a cameo role in the song "Emotional Atyachar" in the movie Dev D in his
role of Rangila, along with his duet partner Rasila (known together as Patna ke Presley). In the
same year he appeared in New York (2009). However, it was his role of a journalist in Anusha
Rizvi's Peepli Live (2010), that first got him wide recognition as an actor.[16] In 2012, he appeared
in Prashant Bhargava's Patang : The Kite (2012) which premiered at the Berlin International Film
Festival and the Tribeca Film Festival, for which Siddiqui's performance was praised by film
critic Roger Ebert,[17] a role which "transformed his acting style".[18] The film was subsequently
released in the U.S. and Canada, and garnered much attention with rave reviews from the New
York Times.[19]

He then appeared in Kahaani (2012), in which he played the archetypal short-tempered

intelligence officer Khan. Anurag Kashyap's gangster epic Gangs of Wasseypur followed, which
furthered his fame.[20] He played his first primary role as Sonu Duggal in Ashim Ahluwalia's Miss
Lovely,[21] which premiered at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival,[22][23] a role Siddiqui describes as his
"most real performance so far."[24] Siddiqui then followed this up with the sequel to Gangs of
Wasseypur. In 2013, he played the lead role in the horror flick Aatma.[25] He appeared in Aamir
Khan's 2012 release Talash. In 2014, he played lead antagonist Shiv Gajra, in the
blockbuster Kick.[26]

In 2015, Siddiqui's films Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Manjhi - The Mountain Man were released, and he
was praised for his roles. Siddiqui appeared in a film based in Gujarat, titled Haraamkhor.[27] For
his performance in Haramkhor, he was awarded "Best Actor" at the New York Indian Film
Festival.[28] Siddiqui received the Special Jury Award at the 2012 National Film Awards.[29][30] and
the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor in 2013.