Samrat Chakrabarti is a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

-American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 actor and musician of India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n descent.

Early life

Born in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, England to immigrant parents from Kolkata

Kolkata

Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...

, India, he performed in Indian community functions in Boston, Massachusetts, where he was exposed to music, poetry and the plays of Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore , sobriquet Gurudev, was a Bengali polymath who reshaped his region's literature and music. Author of Gitanjali and its "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse", he became the first non-European Nobel laureate by earning the 1913 Prize in Literature...

.

Acting career

Having acted all through school, Chakrabarti's feature film debut came in 2004 in Spike Lee

Spike Lee

Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee is an American film director, producer, writer, and actor. His production company, 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks, has produced over 35 films since 1983....

's She Hate Me

She Hate Me

She Hate Me is a 2004 independent comedy-drama film directed by Spike Lee and starring Anthony Mackie, Kerry Washington, Ellen Barkin, Monica Bellucci, Brian Dennehy, Woody Harrelson, Bai Ling and John Turturro....

. Early in his career, he starred opposite Molly Shannon

Molly Shannon

Molly Helen Shannon is an American comic actress best known for her work as a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 1995–2001 and for starring in the films Superstar and Year of the Dog. More recently, she starred in NBC's Kath & Kim from 2008–2009 and on the TBS animated series Neighbors from...

 in The Wedding Weekend and then in Manish Acharya

Manish Acharya

Manish Acharya was an Indian film director and actor. Acharya was best known for Loins of Punjab Presents, which marked Acharya's debut as a film director. Loins of Punjab Presents, which was released in 2007, starred Shabana Azmi...

's Loins of Punjab Presents

Loins of Punjab Presents

Loins of Punjab Presents is a 2007 Indian film directed by Manish Acharya. It stars Shabana Azmi, Ayesha Dharker and Ajay Naidu. The film marked Manish Acharya's first feature film as a director.-Cast:*Shabana Azmi .... Rrita Kapoor...

. He also had a role in the Australian film, The Waiting City

The Waiting City

-External links:*...

. His film, 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...

, was nominated for an Indie Spirit Award

Independent Spirit Awards

The Independent Spirit Awards , founded in 1984, are awards dedicated to independent filmmakers. Winners were typically presented with acrylic glass pyramids containing suspended shoestrings representing the paltry budgets of independent films. In 1986, the event was renamed the Independent Spirit...

 while Bombay Summer, starring Tannishtha Chatterjee

Tannishtha Chatterjee

Tannishtha Chatterjee is an Indian actress.She is best known in the west for her performance in the British film Brick Lane , the film adaptation of Monica Ali's best selling novel of the same name. She was nominated for the British Independent Film Awards as the best actress for Brick Lane...

 won Best Film at the 2009 MIAAC Film Festival. Chakrabarti starred opposite Rebecca Hazelwood in Kissing Cousins

Kissing Cousins (film)

Kissing Cousins is an film starring Samrat Chakrabarti and Rebecca Hazelwood. It is a romantic comedy about a relationship terminator who falls for his cousin, released in 2008....

and made an appearance in the Yash Raj

Yash Raj Films

Yash Raj Films is an Indian Entertainment company set up by Yash Chopra, an Indian film director and producer who is considered an entertainment mogul in India.-Initial years:...

-produced Bollywood

Bollywood

Bollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai , Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the total Indian film industry, which includes other production centers producing...

 film, New York

New York (film)

New York is a 2009 Bollywood thriller directed by Kabir Khan, produced by Aditya Chopra under Yash Raj Films, and with a screenplay by Sandeep Srivastava. Visual effects are by Visual Computing Labs, Tata Elxsi Ltd. It stars John Abraham, Katrina Kaif, Neil Nitin Mukesh, and Irrfan Khan...

. Chakrabarti played the character Rishi, a menacing gangster in Ajay Naidu

Ajay Naidu

Ajay Kalahastri Naidu is an American actor.Naidu was born in Evanston, Illinois He attended Evanston Township High School. As an actor, he trained with the American Repertory Theater's Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard University.His first professional acting job was the film ...

’s Ashes. He will be seen soon in Murder in the Dark, produced by Napoleon Dynamite

Napoleon Dynamite

Napoleon Dynamite is a 2004 comedy film co-written and directed by Jared Hess and Jerusha Hess and stars Jon Heder as Napoleon Dynamite. The film was Jared Hess' first full-length feature and is partially adapted from his earlier short film, Peluca....

’s Chris Wyatt

Chris Wyatt (producer)

Christopher Aaron Wyatt, sometimes credited as Chris "Doc" Wyatt, is an American film producer, writer, and second unit director. He produced the 2004 film Napoleon Dynamite, the 2006 film Think Tank, the 2007 film Beneath, the 2007 film Coyote, and the 2009 film Broken Hill featuring...

.

Chakrabarti has also appeared in television productions. He has appeared on In Treatment

In Treatment

In Treatment is an American HBO drama, produced and developed by Rodrigo Garcia, about a psychologist, 50-something Dr. Paul Weston, and his weekly sessions with patients, as well as those with his own therapist at the end of the week. The program, which stars Gabriel Byrne as Paul, debuted on...

(HBO) as Irrfan Khan’s son, 30 Rock

30 Rock

30 Rock is an American television comedy series created by Tina Fey that airs on NBC. The series is loosely based on Fey's experiences as head writer for Saturday Night Live...

(NBC

NBC

The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

) opposite Alec Baldwin

Alec Baldwin

Alexander Rae "Alec" Baldwin III is an American actor who has appeared on film, stage, and television.Baldwin first gained recognition through television for his work in the soap opera Knots Landing in the role of Joshua Rush. He was a cast member for two seasons before his character was killed off...

, Bored To Death

Bored to Death

Bored to Death is an American comedy series, which premiered on HBO on September 20, 2009. , three seasons have aired, each consisting of eight episodes. The show was created by author Jonathan Ames, and stars Jason Schwartzman as a fictional Jonathan Ames – a writer based in Brooklyn, New York...

(HBO), Law & Order: Criminal Intent

Law & Order: Criminal Intent

Law & Order: Criminal Intent is an American police procedural television drama series set in New York City, where it was also primarily produced. Created and produced by Dick Wolf and René Balcer, the series premiered on September 30, 2001, as the second spin-off of Wolf's successful crime drama...

(NBC) opposite Chris Noth

Chris Noth

Christopher David "Chris" Noth is an American actor. He is known for long-running television roles as Det. Mike Logan on the police procedural and legal drama television series, Law & Order and Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and as Big on Sex and the City. For the latter role, he has been...

, Law & Order

Law & Order

Law & Order is an American police procedural and legal drama television series, created by Dick Wolf and part of the Law & Order franchise. It aired on NBC, and in syndication on various cable networks. Law & Order premiered on September 13, 1990, and completed its 20th and final season on May 24,...

(NBC), Love Monkey

Love Monkey

Love Monkey is a television series created by Michael Rauch and based on a book of the same name, by Kyle Smith. It starred Tom Cavanagh as a 30-something, single, record executive who navigated the tumultuous and highly amusing waters of work and dating in New York City.Its first episode aired on...

(CBS

CBS

CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

), The Sopranos

The Sopranos

The Sopranos is an American television drama series created by David Chase that revolves around the New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano and the difficulties he faces as he tries to balance the often conflicting requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he heads...

(HBO) and All My Children

All My Children

All My Children is an American television soap opera that aired on ABC from January 5, 1970 to September 23, 2011. Created by Agnes Nixon, All My Children is set in Pine Valley, Pennsylvania, a fictitious suburb of Philadelphia. The show features Susan Lucci as Erica Kane, one of daytime's most...

. Chakrabarti was a recurring character on FX’s Damages

Damages (TV series)

Damages is an American television drama series created by the writing and production trio of Daniel Zelman and brothers Glenn and Todd A. Kessler . It is broadcast in the United States on the DirecTV channel Audience Network after originally airing on FX and is produced by the creators' own...

opposite Ted Danson

Ted Danson

Edward Bridge “Ted” Danson III is an American actor best known for his role as central character Sam Malone in the sitcom Cheers, and his role as Dr. John Becker on the series Becker. He also plays a recurring role on Larry David's HBO sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm and starred alongside Glenn Close...

.

Views as an actor of East Indian descent

Quotes attributed to Samrat appear to highlight challenges faced by actors from East Indian descent, he claims to have fought against people who encouraged him to anglicize his name to get more auditions .

• "One of the greatest triumphs of our society is its celebration of diversity. Why subsidize primitive thought? It only slows down evolution."
• "A brown man in a white industry, I am not involved in politics; politics is involved in me."
• "In the vein of Satyajit Ray and Shyam Benegal, we must prove ourselves through the beauty of independent cinema. In that way, I want to help bring the indie back to Indian."
• "Paint the town brown."

Music career

Samrat Chakrabarti is also an established international musician. In 1994, he founded Brandeis University

Brandeis University

Brandeis University is an American private research university with a liberal arts focus. It is located in the southwestern corner of Waltham, Massachusetts, nine miles west of Boston. The University has an enrollment of approximately 3,200 undergraduate and 2,100 graduate students. In 2011, it...

's award-winning all male a cappella

A cappella

A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...

 group, VoiceMale, for which he continues to contribute arrangements and original compositions, including "Please Don't Go," which appears on the album Suit Up and arrangements for the national a cappella compilation Voices Only 2009. He won a U.S. CARA

Contemporary A Cappella Society

The Contemporary A Cappella Society , or CASA, is a 501 charitable organization dedicated to fostering and promoting a cappella music of all styles around the world. CASA was cofounded in 1991 by Deke Sharon by incorporating the first a cappella directory, The List, founded in 1988 & distributed...

 for Best Original Pop/Rock Song for his composition "What's It all About". He is a former member of the a capella group Five O' Clock Shadow. He was also a part of the group The Hyannis Sound. In 1998, Chakrabarti produced an untitled album for his musical group, JYDE, and composed the song "Startving".

Chakrabarti has also composed the theme song "Dhol Beat" for Loins of Punjab, the original scores for Hiding Divya and Sundaram Tagore’s Natvar Bhavsar: Poetics of Color.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2004 2004 in film The year 2004 in film involved some significant events. Major releases of sequels took place. It included blockbuster films like Shrek 2, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, The Passion of the Christ, Meet the Fockers, Blade: Trinity, Spider-Man 2, Alien vs. Predator, Kill Bill Vol...	She Hate Me She Hate Me She Hate Me is a 2004 independent comedy-drama film directed by Spike Lee and starring Anthony Mackie, Kerry Washington, Ellen Barkin, Monica Bellucci, Brian Dennehy, Woody Harrelson, Bai Ling and John Turturro....	Ahmad
2005 2005 in film - Highest-grossing films :Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top-grossing films that were first released in the United States in 2005...	Arya	Raj Singh
2005 2005 in film - Highest-grossing films :Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top-grossing films that were first released in the United States in 2005...	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...	Pakistani Interrogator
2006 2006 in film - Highest-grossing films :Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top-grossing films that were first released in the United States in 2006...	The Bong Connection The Bong Connection The Bong Connection is a 2006 Indian movie starring Raima Sen, Shayan Munshi and Parambrata Chatterjee and directed by Anjan Dutta. The movie is based on the lives of Bengalis in the U.S. and Kolkata.-Plot:...	Rakesh
2007 2007 in film This is a list of major films released in 2007.-Top grossing films:Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top grossing films that were first released in the USA in 2007...	Loins of Punjab Presents Loins of Punjab Presents Loins of Punjab Presents is a 2007 Indian film directed by Manish Acharya. It stars Shabana Azmi, Ayesha Dharker and Ajay Naidu. The film marked Manish Acharya's first feature film as a director.-Cast:*Shabana Azmi .... Rrita Kapoor...	Trance Sen
2007 2007 in film This is a list of major films released in 2007.-Top grossing films:Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top grossing films that were first released in the USA in 2007...	Ashes	Rishi
2007 2007 in film This is a list of major films released in 2007.-Top grossing films:Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top grossing films that were first released in the USA in 2007...	Karma Calling	Rohit Rao
2007 2007 in film This is a list of major films released in 2007.-Top grossing films:Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top grossing films that were first released in the USA in 2007...	Kissing Cousins Kissing Cousins (film) Kissing Cousins is an film starring Samrat Chakrabarti and Rebecca Hazelwood. It is a romantic comedy about a relationship terminator who falls for his cousin, released in 2008....	Amir
2009 2009 in film The year 2009 saw the release of many films. Seven made the top 50 list of highest-grossing films, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that as of this year, their Best Picture category would consist of ten nominees, rather than five .- Highest-grossing films :Please note...	New York New York (film) New York is a 2009 Bollywood thriller directed by Kabir Khan, produced by Aditya Chopra under Yash Raj Films, and with a screenplay by Sandeep Srivastava. Visual effects are by Visual Computing Labs, Tata Elxsi Ltd. It stars John Abraham, Katrina Kaif, Neil Nitin Mukesh, and Irrfan Khan...	Yakub
2012 2012 in film The following tables list films that are in production or have completed production and will be released in the United States and Canada at some point in 2012...	Winds of Change Winds of Change (upcoming film) Midnight's Children is an upcoming film adaptation of Salman Rushdie's 1981 novel of the same name. Written and directed by Deepa Mehta, the film features an ensemble cast of Satya Bhabha, Shriya Saran, Anupam Kher, Shabana Azmi, Seema Biswas, Shahana Goswami, Samrat Chakrabarti, Rahul Bose, Anita...	Wee Willie Winkie
2012 2012 in film The following tables list films that are in production or have completed production and will be released in the United States and Canada at some point in 2012...	Vishwaroopam Vishwaroopam Vishwaroopam is an upcoming bilingual spy thriller film to be written and directed by Kamal Haasan that features himself in the lead role. It's being filmed in Tamil and Hindi.-Cast:* Kamal Haasan* Pooja Kumar* Rahul Bose* Isha Sharvani...		Indian Tamil Movie

Television roles

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2004	The Sopranos The Sopranos The Sopranos is an American television drama series created by David Chase that revolves around the New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano and the difficulties he faces as he tries to balance the often conflicting requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he heads... (HBO)	Dr. Onkar Singh
2004	Law & Order Law & Order Law & Order is an American police procedural and legal drama television series, created by Dick Wolf and part of the Law & Order franchise. It aired on NBC, and in syndication on various cable networks. Law & Order premiered on September 13, 1990, and completed its 20th and final season on May 24,... (NBC NBC The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago... )	Hydar Raheem
2004	Hope and Faith (ABC) American Broadcasting Company The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...	DJ
2006	Love Monkey Love Monkey Love Monkey is a television series created by Michael Rauch and based on a book of the same name, by Kyle Smith. It starred Tom Cavanagh as a 30-something, single, record executive who navigated the tumultuous and highly amusing waters of work and dating in New York City.Its first episode aired on... (CBS CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of... )	Engineer
2007	Law & Order: Criminal Intent Law & Order: Criminal Intent Law & Order: Criminal Intent is an American police procedural television drama series set in New York City, where it was also primarily produced. Created and produced by Dick Wolf and René Balcer, the series premiered on September 30, 2001, as the second spin-off of Wolf's successful crime drama... (NBC NBC The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago... )	Tariq Amir

External links

• Samrat Chakrabarti official website