Hiran Abeysekera

Hiran Abeysekera is a Sri Lankan actor. He won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor for his performance in the stage adaptation of Life of Pi.^[1] On television, he is known for his roles in Russell T Davies' A Midsummer Night's Dream (2016) and the tween dance series Find Me in Paris (2018–2019).

Hiran Abeysekera
Born	1985 (age 39–40)[citation needed] Sri Lanka
Education	Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (BA)
Occupation	Actor
Years active	2011–present

Early life and education

Abeysekera was born in Colombo and grew up during the Civil War.^[2] His father was a garage owner and his mother taught English.^[3] Abeysekera was educated at Nalanda College Colombo.^[4]

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".^[2] Having obtained a diploma from the Lanka Children's and Youth Theatre Foundation, he played the lead role in a British Council production of Peter Shaffer's Equus in 2007.^[5][3] This enabled him to audition for drama schools in the UK, following which he secured a place at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.^[3][6] He graduated in 2011.^[3]

Career

Abeysekera made his professional stage debut with the English Touring Theatre in 2011, playing Valere in Tartuffe.^[7] In 2012 he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-Upon-Avon and was cast as Bartholomew in The Taming of the Shrew. In 2015, he played Peter Pan on the London stage.^[8]

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.^[9][10] He played Posthumus in their stage production of Cymbeline at the Barbican Theatre London,^[11] and Horatio in Hamlet.^{[12][better source needed]}

In 2018, Abeysekera began appearing in the Hulu series Find Me in Paris, portraying the role of Dash Khan until 2019.^[13] He played Pi Patel in the 2019 premiere of Lolita Chakrabarti's adaption of Life of Pi at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, for which he won a UK Theatre Award.^[14] In the same year, he was cast in the part of Leonardo da Vinci 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.^{[citation needed]}

In 2021, Abeysekera returned to the role of Pi Patel when Life of Pi transferred to the Wyndham's Theatre in London's West End. In 2022, he won the Olivier Award for Best Actor in a play for his performance.^[15] He reprised his role once again for the show's 2023 New York run at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, marking his Broadway debut. He received Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations.^[2]

Abeysekara will play the title role in William Shakespeare's Hamlet, directed by Robert Hastie in the Lyttleton Theatre at the Royal National Theatre from 25 September until 22 November 2025, as part of Indhu Rubasingham's inaural season as artistic director.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2014	Lion in the Tent	Aamir	Short film
2019	Supervized	Celestro
TBA	The Magic Faraway Tree	Angry Pixie	Filming

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2016	A Midsummer Night's Dream	Puck	Television film
2018	Holby City	Tyler Saba	2 episodes
2018–19	Find Me in Paris	Dash Khan	27 episodes[12][better source needed]
2022	The Good Karma Hospital	Prakash Dhatt	1 episode[12][better source needed]

Stage

Year	Work	Role	Company	Notes
2011	Tartuffe	Valere	UK tour
	Rats Tales	Wood cutter/Prince/Troll baby	Royal Exchange, Manchester	[16]
2012	The Taming of the Shrew	Bartholomew	Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon	[17]
2013	You In Mid Air	Theo Oakden	The Circus Space / RADA	[16]
2014	BBC Proms 22: War Horse	Ensemble	National Theatre / Royal Albert Hall, London	[16]
	Behind the Beautiful Forevers	Sunil Sharma	National Theatre, London	[18]
2015	Peter Pan	Peter Pan	Regent's Park Open Air Theatre, London	[19]
2016	Cymbeline	Posthumus	Royal Shakespeare Company, Barbican Theatre, London	[20]
	Hamlet	Horatio	Royal Shakespeare Company	[20]
2018	The Prisoner	Mavuso	Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, Paris	[16]
2019	Life of Pi	Pi Patel	Crucible Theatre, Sheffield	[21]
	Akhrot		Edinburgh Fringe Festival	[22]
	Botticelli in the Fire	Leonardo da Vinci	Hampstead Theatre, London	[23]
2020	Tempest	Wood cutter / Prince / Troll baby	Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, Paris	[16]
2021	Life of Pi	Pi Patel	Wyndham's Theatre, London	[24]
2023			Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, New York
	The Father and the Assassin	Nathuram Godse	Olivier Theatre, Royal National Theatre	[25]
2025	Hamlet	Hamlet	Lyttleton Theatre, Royal National Theatre

Audio

Year	Work	Role	Venue	Notes
2013	Broken Paradise	Reader	BBC Radio	[16]
2017	Tuman Bay	Barakat	BBC Radio 4	[16]

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Work	Result	Ref.
2011	Ian Charleson Awards		Tartuffe	Nominated	[26]
2019	UK Theatre Awards	Best Performance in a Play	Life of Pi	Won	[27]
2022	Laurence Olivier Awards	Best Actor		Won	[28][29]