What Happened To The Actor Who Played Pi In Life Of Pi?
Suraj Sharma is one of the few actors who can say he found global fame with his very first acting role. As the titular hero of blockbuster director Ang Lee's Life of Pi, the actor had a heavy burden on his shoulders. Not only was he the star, but he spends much of the movie playing opposite a CGI tiger.
The actor was just 17 years old when he was cast in Life of Pi. When the film hit theaters in 2012, Suraj Sharma was thrust into the spotlight, thanks to both its widespread critical acclaim and its enormous success at the box office. That would be a big deal for anyone — but after beating out 3,000 other contenders for the role of Pi despite having never acted before, it's safe to say Suraj Sharma's life changed to an especially extreme degree.
He earned ten nominations for his performance in Life of Pi, including a Rising Star nod from the BAFTAs and Best Young Actor from the Critics' Choice Movie Awards. He also won the Saturn Award for Best Performance by a Younger Actor, securing a unique and memorable legacy in Hollywood. While none of his follow-up roles have been quite as high-profile as Life of Pi, in the nearly ten years since he debuted, Suraj Sharma has kept up an impressive run — both in his native India and in Hollywood.
Let's see what happened to him after Life of Pi.
Since Life of Pi, Suraj Sharma's roles have run the gamut
It didn't take Suraj Sharma long to follow up his role in Life of Pi, and he immediately proved he could hold his own against A-list actors as well as he did against VFX tigers. In 2014, Suraj Sharma starred alongside Mad Men's Jon Hamm in the Disney film Million Dollar Arm, one of the best Disney movies you can't watch on Disney+. In the film, he plays real-life baseball player Rinku Singh, one of two athletes discovered after winning a reality television competition.
Then, he began to take on a range of roles, both in India and in Hollywood — from the Sundance Film Festival-winning dramedy Umrika to the Hindi fantasy-comedy Phillauri to the campy sci-fi American horror story Happy Death Day 2U. Suraj Sharma has also made some big moves on the small screen. He had a memorable role in the fourth season of Homeland, playing CIA asset Aayan Ibrahim. From 2018 to 2020, he starred as hacker Rakesh Singh in the CBS series God Friended Me, and last year he also starred in the first episode of the Apple TV+ anthology series Little America.
By the end of 2020, he had amassed 13 film and TV credits to his name — which is especially impressive considering he also began pursuing higher education around the time Life of Pi hit theaters. In a recent interview with the Deccan Herald, Suraj Sharma made it clear he's interested in expanding his filmmaking roles. The actor said he's hoping to direct films in the future, as well, so we're guessing we haven't heard the last of Suraj Sharma.