Hiran Abeysekera is a Sri Lankan actor. He won the

Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor The Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Play is an annual award presented by the Society of London Theatre in recognition of achievements in commercial London theatre. The awards were established as the Society of West End Theatre Awards ...

for his performance in the stage adaptation of ''

Life of Pi ''Life of Pi'' is a Canadian philosophical novel by Yann Martel published in 2001. The protagonist is Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel, an Indian boy from Pondicherry, India who explores issues of spirituality and metaphysics from an early age. He ...

''. On television, he is known for his roles in

Russell T Davies Stephen Russell Davies (born 27 April 1963), better known as Russell T Davies, is a Welsh screenwriter and television producer whose works include ''Queer as Folk'', '' The Second Coming'', ''Casanova'', the 2005 revival of the BBC One scien ...

' '' A Midsummer Night's Dream'' (2016) and the tween dance series ''

Find Me in Paris ''Find Me in Paris'' is an English-language teen science-fantasy dramedy series that premiered on April 14, 2018, on Hulu, produced by ZDF and Cottonwood Media. The series is filmed on location in Paris, in areas such as the Palais Garnier and O ...

'' (2018–2019).

Early life and education

Abeysekera was born in

Colombo Colombo ( ; si, කොළඹ, translit=Koḷam̆ba, ; ta, கொழும்பு, translit=Koḻumpu, ) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo m ...

and grew up during the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

. His father was a garage owner and his mother taught English. Abeysekera was educated at Nalanda College Colombo. When he was 18, Abeysekera lost his friend in a tsunami. He had begun studying to become a doctor, but decided to pursue his passion of theatre because "life can end at any second". Having obtained a diploma from the Lanka Children's and Youth Theatre Foundation, he played the lead role in a

British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lan ...

production of

Peter Shaffer Sir Peter Levin Shaffer (; 15 May 1926 – 6 June 2016) was an English playwright, screenwriter, and novelist. He wrote numerous award-winning plays, of which several were adapted into films. Early life Shaffer was born to a Jewish family in L ...

's '' Equus'' in 2007. This enabled him to audition for drama schools in the UK, following which he secured a place at the

Royal Academy of Dramatic Art The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA; ) is a drama school in London, England, that provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in the Bloomsbury area of Central London, close to the Senat ...

. He graduated in 2011.

Career

Abeysekera made his professional stage debut with the English Touring Theatre in 2011, playing Valere in ''

Tartuffe ''Tartuffe, or The Impostor, or The Hypocrite'' (; french: Tartuffe, ou l'Imposteur, ), first performed in 1664, is a theatrical comedy by Molière. The characters of Tartuffe, Elmire, and Orgon are considered among the greatest classical thea ...

''. In 2012 he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-Upon-Avon and was cast as Bartholomew in ''

The Taming of the Shrew ''The Taming of the Shrew'' is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1590 and 1592. The play begins with a framing device, often referred to as the induction, in which a mischievous nobleman tricks a drunken ...

''. In 2015, he played

Peter Pan Peter Pan is a fictional character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie. A free-spirited and mischievous young boy who can fly and never grows up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood having adventures on the mythi ...

on the London stage. In 2016, he returned to the Royal Shakespeare Company and played Puck in a film adaptation of '' A Midsummer Night's Dream'', which was screened by the BBC. He played

Posthumus Posthumus is a surname mostly stemming from the Dutch province of Friesland. Among variants are '' Posthuma'' and ''Postmus''. The surname may have originated in the same way Romans called boys and girls born after the death of their father ''Postu ...

in their stage production of ''

Cymbeline ''Cymbeline'' , also known as ''The Tragedie of Cymbeline'' or ''Cymbeline, King of Britain'', is a play by William Shakespeare set in Ancient Britain () and based on legends that formed part of the Matter of Britain concerning the early Celti ...

'' at the

Barbican Theatre The Barbican Centre is a performing arts centre in the Barbican Estate of the City of London and the largest of its kind in Europe. The centre hosts classical and contemporary music concerts, theatre performances, film screenings and art exhib ...

London, and

Horatio Horatio is an English male given name, an Italianized form of the ancient Roman Latin '' nomen'' (name) '' Horatius'', from the Roman '' gens'' (clan) '' Horatia''. The modern Italian form is ''Orazio'', the modern Spanish form ''Horacio''. It app ...

in ''

Hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

''. In 2018, Abeysekera began appearing in the Hulu series ''

'', portraying the role of Dash Khan until 2019. He played Pi Patel in the 2019 premiere of Lolita Chakrabarti's adaption of ''

'' at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, for which he won a UK Theatre Award. In the same year, he was cast in the part of

Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, Drawing, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially res ...

in the new play ''Botticelli in the Fire'' staged by the Hampstead Theatre, London. He then played Sunil Sharma in the play ''Behind the Beautiful Forevers'' at the Royal National Theatre. In 2021, Abeysekera returned to the role of Pi Patel when ''Life of Pi'' transferred to the

Wyndham's Theatre Wyndham's Theatre is a West End theatre, one of two opened by actor/manager Charles Wyndham (the other is the Criterion Theatre). Located on Charing Cross Road in the City of Westminster, it was designed c.1898 by W. G. R. Sprague, the archit ...

in London's West End. In 2022, he won the Olivier Award for Best Actor in a play for his performance. He reprised his role once again for the show's 2023 New York run at the

Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre The Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, formerly the Plymouth Theatre, is a Broadway theater at 236 West 45th Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1917, the theater was designed by Herbert J. Krapp and was ...

, marking his

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

debut. He received

Drama Desk The Drama Desk Award is an annual prize recognizing excellence in New York theatre. First bestowed in 1955 as the Vernon Rice Award, the prize initially honored Off-Broadway productions, as well as Off-off-Broadway, and those in the vicinity. Fol ...

and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations.

Personal life

Abeysekera met his girlfriend while working on a show with

Peter Brook Peter Stephen Paul Brook (21 March 1925 – 2 July 2022) was an English theatre and film director. He worked first in England, from 1945 at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, from 1947 at the Royal Opera House, and from 1962 for the Royal Sha ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

. They stayed together at

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...

during the lockdown caused by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

Filmography

Film

Television

Stage

Audio

Awards and nominations

References

External links

*
Hiran Abeysekera
at RADA {{DEFAULTSORT:Abeysekera, Hiran Living people 1986 births Alumni of Nalanda College, Colombo Alumni of RADA Laurence Olivier Award winners Royal Shakespeare Company members Sri Lankan dramatists and playwrights Sri Lankan male stage actors Sri Lankan male actors Sri Lankan expatriates in the United Kingdom Theatre World Award winners