American actor Sendhil Ramamurthy was born on May 17, 1974 in Chicago, Illinois. He is of Indian Tamil descent; both his parents, who both work as physicists, hail from Bangalore, India. He initially planned to follow his parents’ footsteps—his family is a family of doctors, with his sister also working as a physician—by becoming a pre-med major at Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts. He took up an acting class in order to fulfill his graduation requirements, but he became so interested that he decided to change career paths: after several school plays, he graduated with a history degree and took acting training at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in New York City. He later studied drama in England, and became a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Ramamurthy is a veteran of the stage, having appeared in several productions. These include an off-Broadway production of East is East, and a West End production of A Servant of Two Masters. He made his television debut in 2000, when he starred in the television movie In the Beginning. The following year, he made his first film appearance, playing a supporting role in the short film Little India. The football lover then made guest appearances in other television shows, including Ultimate Force, Casualty, Grey’s Anatomy, Numb3rs and the daytime soap Guiding Light. He also appeared in films such as Thanks to Gravity and Blind Dating.
Ramamurthy’s biggest television role, however, came in 2006, when he was cast as Indian geneticist Mohinder Suresh in the NBC series Heroes. The role was originally written for a 55-year-old, but the producers were impressed with Ramamurthy’s performance that they rewrote the part for him. His character looks for people finding the “superhuman” beings on earth, continuing the quest of his father (Erick Avari), who was killed while undergoing the same search. His quest is also to find out the identity of his father’s killer.
Ramamurthy has also appeared with his fellow Heroes cast mates to promote several seasons of the show. He has been seen on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Ellen: The Ellen Degeneres Show, and Live with Regis and Kathie Lee. The actor returned to the stage in 2003, acting in the Off-Off Broadway premiere of Tom Stoppard’s “Indian Ink” at the Walkerspace Theater in Manhattan's TriBeCa district.
-Ramamurthy made a conscious decision to not audition for stereotypical Indian roles, although he has been offered such parts.
-Ramamurthy enjoys playing soccer.
-If Sendhil could have chosen a power for his character in Heroes it would have been the ability to fly. Now, he simply wishes people would stop asking him that question.
- The first time somebody asked me about manga, I thought he said "mango". I honestly had never even heard that term before. I was like, "Why are you asking me about fruit?" That didn't work out so well for me.
(Excited about the show, "Heroes")
-It is less X-Men and more Unbreakable. It's pretty dark at times. There's the supernatural aspect, but how they deal with it is all rooted in reality, which is why we hope the show catches on. We don't want it to be just sci-fi.
-I don't think that Mohinder necessarily sees himself in the Professor X position, though in terms of the story he is. I don't think Mohinder sees himself as "only human." I think he is glad he is not one of the people with powers, because Sylar keeps killing them!