Early life and career

Akhtar was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Pakistani parents. He attended Brown University

Brown University

Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...

 where he majored in theater. After graduation he moved to Italy and studied acting with Jerzy Grotowski

Jerzy Grotowski

Jerzy Grotowski was a Polish theatre director and innovator of experimental theatre, the "theatre laboratory" and "poor theatre" concepts....

 for a year. He then returned to the US to teach acting classes with Andre Gregory

Andre Gregory

Andre William Gregory is an American theatre director, writer and actor.Gregory studied at Harvard University.During the 1960s and 1970s, Gregory directed a number of avant-garde productions developed through ensemble collaboration, the most famous of which was Alice In Wonderland , based on Lewis...

 and earn his M.A. in directing from Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

. While at Columbia he and classmates Tom Glynn and Joseph Castelo formed the idea for The War Within

The War Within (film)

The War Within is a 2005 American drama film directed by Joseph Castelo. Created by Honet Films and released by Magnolia Pictures, the film stars Ayad Akhtar, Firdous Bamji, Nandana Sen and Sarita Choudhury...

, a film about an ordinary man radicalized into becoming a terrorist. Akhtar also starred in the film playing Hassan, the would-be terrorist. In 2011 he played Neel Kashkari

Neel Kashkari

Neel T. Kashkari was the Interim Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Stability in the United States Department of the Treasury. While in this role, he led the Office of Financial Stability, the office set up to buy troubled financial assets from U.S. financial firms under the $700...

 in the HBO film Too Big to Fail

Too Big to Fail

Too Big to Fail is a television drama film in the United States broadcast on HBO on May 23, 2011. It is based on the non-fiction book Too Big to Fail by Andrew Ross Sorkin. The TV film was directed by Curtis Hanson...

. Akhtar's upcoming projects include the plays The Invisible Hand and Disgraced. His first novel, American Dervish is featured on the cover of Little Brown Publishing

Little, Brown and Company

Little, Brown and Company is a publishing house established by Charles Coffin Little and his partner, James Brown. Since 2006 it has been a constituent unit of Hachette Book Group USA.-19th century:...

's 2011 Spring Catalogue and will be published in January 2012.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
2002	"Life Document 2: Identity"	Ahmad	Directed, wrote script and served as editor
2005	The War Within The War Within The War Within can refer to:* The War Within: America's Battle over Vietnam, a book by Tom Wells on America's internal battle over the war in Vietnam* The War Within , a metalcore album by American band Shadows Fall...	Hassan	Co-wrote script
2006	2006 Independent Spirit Awards	Himself	Documentary
	"Long After"	Naseer	Short
2008	"FCU: Fact Checkers Unit"		Short
2011	Too Big to Fail Too Big to Fail Too Big to Fail is a television drama film in the United States broadcast on HBO on May 23, 2011. It is based on the non-fiction book Too Big to Fail by Andrew Ross Sorkin. The TV film was directed by Curtis Hanson...	Neel Kashkari Neel Kashkari Neel T. Kashkari was the Interim Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Stability in the United States Department of the Treasury. While in this role, he led the Office of Financial Stability, the office set up to buy troubled financial assets from U.S. financial firms under the $700...	TV film

External links