Ajay Naidu

Naidu's first professional acting job was _Touch and Go (1986)_ (qv) which he won from an open call. He starred in the TV movie _Lady Blue (1985)_ (qv) as Paquito. This was followed by an _ABC Afterschool Specials (1972)_ (qv) episode _ABC Afterschool Specials: No Greater Gift (1985)_ (qv), in which he played Nick Santana, a 12-year-old boy with a terminal illness. Naidu then appeared in one of the first-season episodes of the original _MacGyver (1985)_ (qv) TV series, _MacGyver: To Be a Man (1986)_ (qv), in 1986. Other film credits when younger include _Where the River Runs Black (1986)_ (qv) and _Vice Versa (1988)_ (qv). Between 1988 and 1995, he worked extensively in classical theater. Naidu returned to film acting in _SubUrbia (1996)_ (qv), for which he was praised for his role as the convenience store owner Nazeer Choudhury, and for which he was nominated for an Independent Spirit award for best supporting actor. Onscreen, Naidu starred in the cult film _Office Space (1999)_ (qv), as well as appearing in such films as _K-PAX (2001)_ (qv), _SUBWAYStories: Tales from the Underground (1997)_ (qv), _Requiem for a Dream (2000)_ (qv), _Bad Santa (2003)_ (qv), _The War Within (2005)_ (qv), _The Guru (2002)_ (qv), _Waterborne (2005)_ (qv), _Loins of Punjab Presents (2007)_ (qv), and many others. He co-starred as a series regular in the sitcom _LateLine (1998)_ (qv) and had guest-starring roles on the television dramas _The Sopranos (1999)_ (qv), _The West Wing (1999)_ (qv), and _Bored to Death (2009)_ (qv). Naidu has been working extensively with musicians from the Asian underground music movement for many years as a dancer and an emcee. His vocals have appeared on many records, most notably 'Talvin Singh' (qv)'s Mercury Award winner "OK." In 2006, Naidu directed his first feature film, _Ashes (2010)_ (qv), which had its release in 2010 and for which he won Best Actor accolades from the New York Indian Film Festival in New York and the London Asian Film Festival. Naidu's most recent theater credits include 'The Master and Margarita' with the Complicité theater company, a world tour of Shakespeare's 'Measure for Measure' with Complicité, 'The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui' alongside 'Al Pacino' (qv), directed by 'Simon McBurney' (qv), and 'The Little Flower of East Orange' alongside 'Ellen Burstyn' (qv), at New York's Public Theater directed by 'Philip Seymour Hoffman' (qv). In 2001, Naidu's solo theater piece 'Darwaza' was a sold-out hit at New York's LAByrinth Theater Company.::anonymous