Akshay Kumar (born Rajiv Hari Om Bhatia) is a popular Bollywood actor and producer, born on September 9, 1967, in Amritsar, Punjab, but he is a naturalized Canadian.    After studying and teaching martial arts, Akshay became a model, and in 1987 he appeared in a Mahesh Bhatt film ‘Aaj’ as a martial arts instructor. He made his first appearance as a lead actor in ‘Saugandh’ in 1991, but Akshay’s breakthrough role was ‘Khiladi’ in 1992.  Akshay, known especially for his action roles and comedies, has appeared in over 120 movies in the last two-and-a-half decades.  Many have been blockbusters, such as the ‘Khiladi’ series, ‘Yeh Dillagi’ (1994), ‘Mohra’ (1994), ‘Hera Pheri’ (2000), ‘Aankhen’ (2002), ‘Khakee’ (2004), ‘Namastey London’ (2007), ‘Singh is Kinng’ (2008) and ‘Singh is Bling’ (2016), ‘Rowdy Rathore’ (2012), and ‘OMG- Oh My God’ (2012),  ‘Houseful’ (2010), ‘Housefull 3’ (2016), and ‘Housefull 4’. In the last few years, Akshay has found success with patriotic films, such as: ‘Holiday’ (2014), ‘Baby’ (2015), ‘Airlift’ (2016), ‘Rustom’ (2016), winning the National Award for Best Actor, ‘Jolly LLB 2’ (2017), and ‘Gold’ (2018), and ‘Kesari’ (2019). He has also found success in social issue movies, such as: ‘Toilet: Ek Prem Katha’ (2017) and ‘Padman’ (2018). In ‘2.0’ (2018), Akshay was the super-villain to Rajinikanth’s hero. Akshay continued his winning streak with ‘Mission Mangal’, as the leader of a team of scientists working on the Mars Orbiter Mission, and ‘Good Newwz’ a comedy in 2019. ‘Laxmmi Bomb’ released on Hotstar in 2020 was a flop. In 2021, Rohit Shetty’s cop universe film ‘Sooryavanshi’, which had been held up for release because of Covid was a hit. The patriotic film ‘Bell Bottom’ was also released in theaters and on Amazon Prime in 2021. 2022 has not been a good year for Akshay as ‘Bachchan Paandey’, ‘Samrat Prithviraj’ and ‘Raksha Bandhan’ have all done poorly at the box office. Akshay has his own production company founded in 2008, Hari Om Entertainment, and in 2011, Grazing Goat Pictures. Akshay is married to author and former actress, Twinkle Khanna, daughter of iconic actor Rajesh Khanna and Dimple Kapadia. The couple has two children.