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Manu Narayan (born August 16, 1973) is an American actor, film producer, singer, songwriter, composer and saxophonist.

Narayan was hailed as a “promising young star…a compelling actor and outstanding singer who can light up a stage with sheer force of personality” by UPI in 2004^[1] when he made his Broadway debut in the Andrew Lloyd Webber and A.R. Rahman musical Bombay Dreams, originating the role of the “hero” Akaash.^[2] Narayan co-starred as Rajneesh alongside Mike Myers in the Paramount Pictures‘ feature film The Love Guru (2008).^[3] He currently guest stars as Hari Sahni on the Apple TV series Your Friends & Neighbors starring Jon Hamm.

Narayan was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

He is an accomplished classical saxophonist in the western and South Indian Carnatic styles. When Narayan was a freshman at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, he won the Concerto Competition and performed the Glazunov Saxophone Concerto with orchestra at Carnegie Hall in Pittsburgh. Narayan studied the Carnatic saxophone in Mangalore, India with Sri Kadri Gopalnath, and played on All India Radio as the winner of the All India Radio music competition of Mangalore. He served as a Trustee of Carnegie Mellon University, his alma mater, from 2013-2016.^[4]

On stage, Narayan made his Broadway debut in the Andrew Lloyd Webber/A.R. Rahman musical Bombay Dreams in 2004, originating the role he is most widely known for, the “hero” Akaash, and garnered a New York Drama League nomination. Narayan co-starred as Zoltan Karpathy in the original cast of Bartlett Sher’s 2018 revival of My Fair Lady at Lincoln Center Theater.^[5] That same year, he appeared as Robbie Patel in the original Broadway cast of Gettin’ the Band Back Together^[6] at the Belasco Theater. Narayan created the role of Charlie Kringas in the 2019 Roundabout Theater / Fiasco off Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim‘s Merrily We Roll Along and the role of Uncle Ernie in the Kennedy Center revival of The Who’s Tommy. In 2021, he played Theo in Company on Broadway at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, replacing Kyle Dean Massey, who left after the closure of theaters due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[7]

Narayan appeared as Richard Roma in La Jolla Playhouse‘s critically acclaimed revival of Glengarry Glen Ross, receiving critical praise for his performance as well as a nomination for a 2012 San Diego Critics Circle Craig Noel Award.^{[8][9][10][11][12][13]}

Narayan starred as the romantic lead in Sudhish Kamath’s Good Night Good Morning, which he co-produced, and Shailja Gupta’s Walkaway. He co-starred with Lucy Hale in A Cinderella Story: Once Upon a Song and was featured in M. Night Shyamalan‘s The Last Airbender. He also co-starred with Canadian comic Russell Peters in Quarter Life Crisis which was first broadcast on Showtime.

In 2003, Narayan was invited to sing at a small state dinner for the first official visit of President George W. Bush to the UK. Narayan sang for and met Queen Elizabeth II, the Royal Family, and President George W. Bush^[14] and Colin Powell. He also sang for then Senator John Kerry’s presidential campaign, sponsored by Senator Hillary Clinton,^[15] as well as elsewhere with Cyndi Lauper, The Band‘s Garth Hudson^[16] and Martha Wainwright.

As a recording artist, Narayan has collaborated on and recorded original and cover tracks for feature film soundtracks including The Love Guru, A Cinderella Story: Once Upon a Song, Good Night Good Morning and Walkaway. He co-wrote and recorded the single “Help Me to Find” for the film Hiding Divya starring Madhur Jaffrey. Narayan has collaborated with Grammy winner Frank London numerous times around the world, most recently recording and performing for his Soundbrush Records’ klezmer concept album, A Night in the Old Marketplace. As the lead vocalist, Narayan performed the concert version of the album throughout Europe and North America. He worked on a new klezmer/Desi collaboration called SHARABI with London and master percussionist Deep Singh, whom he performed with in Bombay Dreams. SHARABI performed at the 2014 Jewish Culture Festival in Kraków, Poland.^[17]

Narayan is also lead singer of the band D A R U N A M with Radovan Jovicevic, founding member of Yugoslavia’s Grupa Zana. The band brings together the melodies and rhythms from three countries: America, India and Serbia. He recorded with D A R U N A M bandmate Radovan Jovicevic the single “Have Me” for the 2007 film And Then Came Love starring Vanessa Williams. Narayan and Jovicevic have released the 2007 EP All That’s Beautiful Must Die and the title track’s video^[18] featuring Janina Gavankar. Their album of Electronic Lounge/World Gypsy music with Canadian clarinetist Milan Milosevic entitled The Last Angel on Earth was released live on CBC national radio in Canada in 2010. D A R U N A M collaborated on an original theatre piece with playwright Aditi Kapil. Their untitled piece was selected to the Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s 2014 Ground Floor Writer’s Summer Residency Lab.^[19]

• Official website
• Manu Narayan at IMDb
• Manu Narayan at the Internet Broadway Database
• Manu Narayan at the Internet Off-Broadway Database (archived)
• Manu Narayan‘s channel on YouTube
• And Then Came Love filmsite
• Padhmashree Kadri Gopalnath’s website