Shiv Palekar

Last updated

Shiv Palekar
Born
Mumbai, India
OccupationActor
Years active2015–present
AgentShanahan
Television Shantaram
Neighbours

Shiv Palekar is an Indian actor. He was born in the 1990s Mumbai, India, and raised in Hong Kong. In 2012, Palekar moved to Sydney, Australia, to study acting at National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA). After Palekar graduated in 2014, he joined the Bell Shakespeare players national tour. This helped his transition into the Australian acting industry. Palekar gained numerous theatre acting roles in the following years. He secured work for some of Australia's notable companies including the Griffin Theatre Company, the Melbourne Theatre Company and the Sydney Theatre Company. In 2019, Palekar worked with Belvoir on the theatre show Counting and Cracking , playing the role of Siddharatha. The show was a critical success and won numerous awards. In 2022, Palekar reprised the role Siddharatha for a UK tour and again in 2024 for Australian and US performances.

Contents

He is also known for his work in Australian television, predominantly as Vikram in the 2022 American-Australian drama series Shantaram and in the soap opera Neighbours , which he joined the show's regular cast in the role of Haz Devkar from 2023 to 2024.

Early life

Palekar was born in 1993 in Mumbai, India. [1] [2] He spent his early life being raised by his mother, with whom he later moved to Hong Kong. [3] Palekar's maternal grand-father was a captain in the Merchant Navy of India. His paternal grand-father was a working man from Mumbai. [3] Palekar believes that his numerous international residences resulted in him feeling like an "immigrant or outsider" in both India and Hong Kong. [3] He credits his later childhood living in Hong Kong as helping him achieve his success. [3] When he was a teenager, Palakar had aspirations of becoming a musician. [4] During his Year 10 school year in Hong Kong, his mother encouraged him to audition for a school play. The experience helped Palekar discover that he wanted to be an actor. [4]

He studied physical theatre at Zen Zen Zo Physical Theatre Company in Brisbane, Australia, via a six-month internship. [1] He trained in both Butoh and the Suzuki method of acting. [1] In 2012, when he was eighteen years old, Palekar moved to Sydney, Australia to further study acting at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA). [5] [6] [7] During this time he appeared in various NIDA produced theatre shows. [8] He graduated in 2014 with a Bachelor of Dramatic Art (Acting). [9] [10] Palekar later applied for Australian citizenship which as of 2023, had not been granted. [3] [6]

Career

After Palekar graduated from NIDA in 2014, he joined the Bell Shakespeare players on a ten month Australian tour. [7] Palekar stated it was "perfect opportunity" to utilise the skills he had learned at drama school. He credited the tour for helping him transition into the professional acting industry. [7] In 2016, he secured his first main role in theatre Abe in the Sydney Theatre Company's show Disgraced, which was directed by Sarah Goodes and written by Ayad Akhtar. [7] [11] Sachin Joab also appeared in the show and it explored contemporary attitudes on religion, in particular Islam. [5] In October 2012, he played Lester in This, This Is Mine which was an alternative theatrical concept staged in a house. [12] [13] It was produced by "The Corinthian Food Store", a Sydney based acting collective which Palekar joined. [14] [13] In July 2017, he played Lorenzo/Morocco in Bell Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice . [15]

In August and September 2018, Palekar played Oliver in the Griffin Theatre Company show The Almighty Sometimes, alongside established actors Hannah Waterman, Penny Cook and Brenna Harding. [16] In January 2019, Palekar played Siddharatha (Sid) in the theatre show Counting and Cracking which was produced by the Belvoir theatre company. [17] [18] The play tells the story of four generations of the one Sri Lankan family. [18] The show was successful and gained numerous awards, including awards for diversity and two Victorian Premier's Literary Awards. [19] [20] He then had the minor role of Billy in Sydney Theatre Company's The Real Thing. [21] Palekar then played Ray Dooley, in the company's production of The Beauty Queen of Leenane . Palekar has since stated it was his favourite theatre project that he had participated in. [7]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Palekar was unsure if he would work in Australia again. He remained in Hong Kong because he was unable to return to Australia on his work visa. This was because of the government's COVID-related rules regarding entry to the country. [7] This halted Palekar's theatre career and he played no stage roles during 2020 and 2021. He later returned to Australia to resume his acting career but had to quarantine in a hotel room for seven weeks. [22] Despite this, Palekar played Drew Tweedy-Bell in the 2021 film The Greenhouse, a role he had actually filmed in 2017. [23] [17]

In May 2022, Palekar made his debut for the Melbourne Theatre Company in their production of The Sound Inside. It was a show with only two acting roles, Palekar played Christopher and Catherine McClements played Bella. [24] Palekar had auditioned for the role via Zoom during his seven weeks quarantining. [22] Palekar later revealed that his personal experiences with bureaucracy helped him better understand the role. [7] He later reprised his role as Siddharatha in Counting and Cracking and the show toured the UK. In August it was part of the annual Edinburgh Festival Fringe at the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh. [25] It also played at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre during the Birmingham 2022 Festival. [26] In November, he played Ferdinand in the Sydney Theatre Company's production of The Tempest . [27] Also in 2022, Palekar gained his first regular television role playing Vikram in Apple TV+'s drama series Shantaram . [28] The show was cancelled by Apple after just one season. [29]

In 2023, Palekar joined the cast of the Australian soap opera Neighbours , playing the regular role of Haz Devkar. [30] He was hired during the time Neighbours was being rebooted by Amazon Freevee. The character works in hospitality managing a café, which Palekar thought was ironic given his previous job roles in the sector outside of his acting career. [6] Following his audition, Palekar watched Jackie Woodburne, who plays the character Susan Kennedy, perform a monologue in Neighbours' then final episode. This made him more inclined to secure a role in the show's revival because he realised that Neighbours is "something special". [6] Palekar left the show after one year, with Haz's final scenes broadcast in September 2024. Palekar stated "I've learnt from Haz that the pursuit of goodness and redemption is not an easy road, but it's possible." [31] He reprised his Siddharatha role in Counting and Cracking from June to July 2024 at Belvoir and again during September 2024 at the NYU Skirball in New York City. [32] [33]

Filmography

YearTitleRoleNotes
2017Picking UpFelippeShort film
2017 Cleverman Advisor #2 / KhanGuest role
2017 Growing Up Gracefully Ex-boyfriendGuest role
2018GrannyConst. JacksonGuest role
2018InadequateDirkGuest role
2020GooddogShemGuest role
2020Among MenMichaelShort film
2020Liberty StreetTrentGuest role
2020Colour BlindShivGuest role
2021The GreenhouseDrew Tweedy-BellFilm role
2022 Shantaram VikramRegular role
2023-2024 Neighbours Haz Devkar Regular role
Sources: [17]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Roxburgh</span> Australian actor

Richard Roxburgh is an Australian actor and filmmaker. He is the recipient of a number of accolades across film, television, and theatre, including four AACTA Awards, three Logie Awards, and two Helpmann Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Beckley</span> Australian actor

Michael Beckley is an Australian actor. He has worked with major theatre companies in both Australia and the United Kingdom, and appeared on London's West End in A Few Good Men(starring Rob Lowe) and Cabaret. He is probably best known for playing Rhys Sutherland, the patriarch of a new family that arrived in the fictional town of Summer Bay in the internationally televised series Home and Away.

Andrew Bibby is an Australian former actor who played Lance Wilkinson on the Australian soap opera Neighbours in 1995, 1996–2001, 2005 and in 2022. He returned again briefly in 2018 and 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nathaniel Dean</span> Australian actor (born 1971)

Nathaniel Dean is an Australian actor and voiceover artist. His most recent performances include Sergeant Hallett in Ridley Scott's Alien: Covenant (2017), as well as colonial Australian settler William Thornhill in The Secret River for the Sydney Theatre Company.

Noel Hodda is an Australian actor, writer, dramaturge, director and teacher.

James David Sharman is an Australian director and writer for film and stage with more than 70 productions to his credit. He is renowned in Australia for his work as a theatre director since the 1960s, and is best known internationally as the director of the 1973 theatrical hit The Rocky Horror Show, its film adaptation The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) and the film's follow-up, Shock Treatment (1981).

Tommy Murphy is an Australian playwright, screenwriter, adaptor and director. He created and was head writer for the 2022 TV series Significant Others. He is best known for his stage and screen adaptation of Timothy Conigrave's memoir Holding the Man. His most recent plays are a stage adaptation of Nevil Shute’s On The Beach, Mark Colvin's Kidney and Packer & Sons.

Scott Johnson is an Australian actor, singer and musician.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pamela Rabe</span> Canadian-born Australian actress

Pamela Rabe is a Canadian–Australian actress and theatre director. A graduate of the Playhouse Acting School in Vancouver, Rabe is best known for her appearances in the Australian films Sirens, Cosi and Paradise Road, and for starring as Joan Ferguson in the television drama series Wentworth.

Luke Carroll is an Australian stage, television, and film actor. He is known for his role in the television drama The Alice (2005), and as a host of the children's program Play School.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Toby Schmitz</span> Australian actor and playwright

Toby Schmitz is an Australian actor and playwright.

Kip Williams is an Australian theatre and opera director. Williams is the current Artistic Director of Sydney Theatre Company. His appointment at age 30 made him the youngest artistic director in the company's history.

Nicholas Brown is an Australian actor, screenwriter, playwright, singer and songwriter.

Meyne Wyatt is an Aboriginal Australian actor, known for his stage, film, and television roles.

George Whaley was an Australian actor, director and writer, known for his work across theatre and film.

Eamon Flack is an Australian theatre director. He is the Artistic Director of Belvoir, a theatre company in Sydney's Surry Hills.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eamon Farren</span> Australian actor (born 1985)

Eamon Farren is an Australian actor. Following starring roles in the films X: Night of Vengeance (2011) and Chained (2012), he came to prominence for portraying Richard Horne in the 2017 revival of Twin Peaks. He also won the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) award for Best Guest Or Supporting Actor in a Television Drama in 2015 for his role in the television film Carlotta (2014). Farren has since had film roles in Winchester (2018) and appeared in the series The ABC Murders (2018) and The Witcher (2019–present).

Counting and Cracking is a play by Australian playwright S. Shakthidharan, first staged in 2019 in Sydney.

Richard Huggett is an Australian film, television and theatre actor. After graduating from NIDA in 1988, Huggett guested in an episode of Home and Away, before he was cast as villain Sonny Bennett in E Street. Huggett's character killed four of the show's regulars, before taking his own life, bringing in strong ratings for the soap. Huggett went on to win the Logie Award for Most Popular New Talent in 1991 for his portrayal of Sonny. Huggett next played Glen Donnelly in another soap Neighbours from 1990 until 1992. He only stayed for a year, as he wanted more to pursue more demanding roles. In 1994, Huggett joined short-lived soap Paradise Beach as Sam Dexter and police drama Blue Heelers as supporting character Sean Neale. He has also made guest appearances in various television shows, including Col'n Carpenter, All Saints and Out of the Blue. He appeared in the Australian film Aiyai: Wrathful Soul in 2020 and re-joined the cast of Neighbours as Glen in 2021. In addition to his television and film work, Huggett has also appeared in a number of theatre productions.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "The Almighty Sometimes program" (PDF). Griffin Theatre Company . Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  2. ↑ Dow, Steve (16 January 2019). "Counting and Cracking: the story behind Belvoir Street theatre's most ambitious play to date". The Guardian . Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "On the Couch with Shiv Palekar". Australian Arts Review. 9 June 2022. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  4. 1 2 Wrong, Suzy (30 July 2018). "5 Questions with Shiv Palekar and Hannah Waterman". Suzy Goes See. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  5. 1 2 McNab, Heather (14 April 2016). "Religion and politics take centre stage with Sydney Theatre Company's Disgraced". The Daily Telegraph . Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Lallo, Michael (10 September 2023). "Ramsay Street is back, but this is not the Neighbours you remember". The Sydney Morning Herald . Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Farrell, Paige (9 June 2022). "Uncertain journeys". Melbourne Theatre Company . Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  8. ↑ "2013 NIDA Annual Report" (PDF). National Institute of Dramatic Art . Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  9. ↑ "Where to Watch NIDA Alumni in September 2023?". National Institute of Dramatic Art . 6 September 2023. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  10. ↑ "All alumni". National Institute of Dramatic Art . 5 June 2023. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  11. ↑ "Disgraced". Sydney Theatre Company . Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  12. ↑ Adrienne, Gross (2 October 2016). "This, This Is Mine, The Corinthian Food Store". Australian Stage. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  13. 1 2 Musa, Helen (1 October 2016). "Review / Torchlight theatre throws light on the Australian experience". Canberra CityNews. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  14. ↑ "The Corinthian Food Store". Thecorinthianfoodstore.com. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  15. ↑ Keyte, Melinda (24 July 2017). "The Merchant of Venice". Artshub.com.au. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  16. ↑ Shand, John (2 August 2018). "The Almighty Sometimes review: A brave performance leaves emotional blood-stains". The Sydney Morning Herald . Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  17. 1 2 3 "Shanahan - Shiv Palekar" (PDF). Shanahan.com.au. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  18. 1 2 Malik, Sarah (18 January 2018). "'Counting and Cracking' joins new wave of migrant storytelling". SBS . Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  19. ↑ Boland, Michaela; Kent, Lucy (15 July 2019). "'Take it from a lesbian holding a Helpmann': Is this Australia's most diverse awards ceremony?". ABC News . Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  20. ↑ Delaney, Brigid (30 January 2020). "Counting and Cracking: Belvoir Street's standout hit wins Australia's richest literary prize". The Guardian . Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  21. ↑ Shand, John (15 September 2019). "The Real Thing review: Wit bounds ahead of matters of the heart". The Sydney Morning Herald . Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  22. 1 2 Harford, Sonia (19 May 2022). "'I was spellbound': This MTC thriller will get inside your head and stay there". The Age . Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  23. ↑ Aldam, Rob (19 March 2021). "BFI Flare Review: The Greenhouse". Backseat Mafia. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  24. ↑ "The Sound Inside". Melbourne Theatre Company . Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  25. ↑ Fisher, Mark (10 August 2022). "Counting and Cracking review – an absorbing Sri Lankan family odyssey". The Guardian . Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  26. ↑ "Counting and Cracking". Birmingham Repertory Theatre . Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  27. ↑ Dow, Steve (20 November 2022). "The Tempest review – Shakespeare gets a radical edit from Sydney Theatre Company". The Guardian . Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  28. ↑ "Apple reveals trailer for highly anticipated drama "Shantaram," starring Charlie Hunnam and based on the international bestselling novel". Apple TV+ . 14 September 2022. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  29. ↑ Andreeva, Nellie (15 December 2022). "'Shantaram' Canceled By Apple TV+ After One Season". Deadline . Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  30. ↑ Seddon, Dan (7 June 2023). "Neighbours casts Shiv Palekar as newcomer Haz in show's new season". Digital Spy . Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  31. ↑ Lewis, George (5 September 2024). "Neighbours stars confirm exits for Mackenzie and Haz". Digital Spy . Retrieved 10 September 2024.
  32. ↑ "Counting and Cracking". Belvoir . Retrieved 10 September 2024.
  33. ↑ "Counting and Cracking". The Public Theater . Retrieved 10 September 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.