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Actor

1969-01-14 · Lambeth, Greater London, England · Male

13 series in the catalog

Naveen William Sidney Andrews (born 17 January 1969) is a British and American actor. He is best known for his role as Sayid Jarrah in the television series Lost (2004–2010), for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and a Primetime Emmy Award, as well as winning a Screen Actors Guild Award along with the cast. He has also appeared in films such as The English Patient (1996), Mighty Joe Young (1998), Rollerball (2002), Bride and Prejudice (2004), Planet Terror (2007), The Brave One (2007), and Diana (2013). In 2022, he portrayed Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani in the Hulu miniseries The Dropout.

Early life

Andrews was born on 17 January 1969 in Lambeth, London, to Nirmala, a psychologist, and Stanley Andrews, a businessman, both immigrants from Kerala, India. He was raised in the Methodist Church of Great Britain. In 1985, when he was 16, Andrews began a relationship with the 30-year-old Geraldine Feakins.

Career

Andrews auditioned for drama school and was accepted at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama. His studies paid off when he won a role in Hanif Kureishi's film London Kills Me (1991). Andrews starred in the 1993 BBC miniseries Buddha of Suburbia. He portrayed Kip Singh in The English Patient (1996), and Sayid Jarrah in the television series Lost (2004–10).

In 2006, he was voted one of People magazine's World's Most Beautiful People.

He starred in Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love (1996), Mighty Joe Young (1998), and Bride and Prejudice (2004). He has also appeared in films such as Rollerball (2002), Planet Terror (2007), The Brave One (2007), and Diana (2013).

He was Jafar in the American fantasy drama Once Upon a Time in Wonderland (2013–14). In 2014, he provided the voice of Sabal in the video game Far Cry 4. From 2015 to 2017, he starred in the series Sense8, (created by The Wachowskis and J. Michael Straczynski) as Jonas. From 2018 to 2019, he co-starred as ex-MI6 and CIA officer Julian Cousins in the series Instinct, alongside Alan Cumming and Bojana Novakovic. In 2022 Andrews co-starred with Amanda Seyfried as Theranos COO Sunny Balwani in the Hulu limited series The Dropout. In February 2025, it was announced that Andrews would voice the title role of Khan Noonien Singh in the scripted audio drama series Star Trek: Khan.

Personal life

Andrews's relationship with Geraldine Feakins lasted from 1985 to 1991. Their son, Jaisal Andrews, was born in 1992. He was later in a relationship with actress Barbara Hershey in Los Angeles, starting in 1998. The couple separated briefly in 2005 and, during that time, Andrews had a son with Czech-French actress Elena Eustache. He and Hershey later reconciled, but in 2010, they announced that they had separated. Andrews was in a long custody dispute with Eustache over their son, and on 7 January 2009, he was granted sole legal and physical custody.

Andrews has spoken about his alcoholism and his two-year addiction to heroin in the mid-1990s. He has described an incident in which he collapsed on set and was treated by emergency services.

He plays guitar and sings, while tap dancing to his own tune as a hobby. He became a naturalised U.S. citizen on 27 May 2010.