Dileep A. Rao (born July 29, 1973) is an American actor who has appeared in feature films and television series. He starred in Sam Raimi's horror film ''

Drag Me to Hell ''Drag Me to Hell'' is a 2009 American supernatural horror film directed and co-written by Sam Raimi. It stars Alison Lohman, Justin Long, Lorna Raver, Dileep Rao, David Paymer, and Adriana Barraza. The plot, written with his older brother Ivan, ...

'' (2009), James Cameron's science fiction film series ''

Avatar Avatar (, ; ), is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means "descent". It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, goddess or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appeara ...

'' (2009-present), and

Christopher Nolan Christopher Edward Nolan (born 30 July 1970) is a British-American filmmaker. Known for his lucrative Hollywood blockbusters with complex storytelling, Nolan is considered a leading filmmaker of the 21st century. His films have grossed $5&nb ...

's thriller ''

Inception ''Inception'' is a 2010 science fiction action film written and directed by Christopher Nolan, who also produced the film with Emma Thomas, his wife. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a professional thief who steals information by infi ...

'' (2010).

Early life and education

Rao was born in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

, California, to a physicist mother and an engineer father, both of Indian descent. He grew up in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia;

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

, Colorado; and Claremont, California. He has one sister, who is a professor at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

Ross School of Business The Stephen M. Ross School of Business, also known as Michigan Ross, is the business school of the University of Michigan, a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Founded in 1924, the school is ranked among the best business schools i ...

. He graduated from Claremont High School and the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego is t ...

, with a B.A., later receiving an M.F.A. from the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, where his class included

Anna Belknap Anna C. Belknap is an American actress. She is known for her role as Detective Lindsay Monroe Messer on ''CSI: NY''. Early life Belknap was born in Damariscotta, Maine. She is a daughter of David and Louise Belknap. She attended Lincoln Academ ...

and

Elizabeth Banks Elizabeth Banks (born Elizabeth Irene Mitchell; February 10, 1974) is an American actress and filmmaker. She is known for playing Effie Trinket in ''The Hunger Games'' film series (2012–2015) and Gail Abernathy-McKadden in the ''Pitch Perf ...

Career

Rao's first role after graduating was in the American premiere of '' Indian Ink'' by Tom Stoppard. Rao moved to Los Angeles and began working in regional theater including at the Berkeley Rep,

South Coast Repertory South Coast Repertory (SCR) is a professional theatre company located in Costa Mesa, California. Tony Award-winning South Coast Repertory, founded in 1964 by David Emmes and Martin Benson, is led by Artistic Director David Ivers and Managing Direc ...

, and for the Manhattan Theater Club. He competed on ''

Jeopardy! ''Jeopardy!'' is an American game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead given gene ...

'' on June 7, 2002, and won $34,400. On June 8, 2008, Rao was randomly selected from over 1,600 entrants to play the

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

Weekend Edition ''Weekend Edition'' is a set of American radio news magazine programs produced and distributed by National Public Radio (NPR). It is the weekend counterpart to the NPR radio program '' Morning Edition''. It consists of ''Weekend Edition Saturday ...

Sunday puzzle on air with

Will Shortz William F. Shortz (born August 26, 1952) is an American puzzle creator and editor and crossword puzzle editor for ''The New York Times''. Early life and education Will Shortz was born and raised on an Arabian horse farm in Crawfordsville, Indi ...

. In 2009, he appeared in ''

'' and ''

''. He was nominated for several awards as part of the ensemble cast in

's 2010 film ''

''. He played a pharmacologist in the film.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

*
Interview with Dileep Rao
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rao, Dileep Living people Male actors from Los Angeles American male film actors American people of Telugu descent American male stage actors Jeopardy! contestants University of California, San Diego alumni American Conservatory Theater alumni 1973 births American male actors of Indian descent