Manu Narayan

Manu Narayan made his Broadway debut as Akaash, the romantic lead in the A.R. Rahman/Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Bombay Dreams in 2004, for which he received a Drama League Award nomination. A musical based on the popular cinema of India, Bollywood, Bombay Dreams was the first musical on Broadway ever to be composed by an Indian and starring an all South Asian cast. Narayan was nominated for a 2012 San Diego Critics Circle nomination in the category of Outstanding Featured Performance in a Play, Male for his turn as Ricky Roma in the Fall 2012 production of La Jolla Playhouse's revival of David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross.

Highlights from Narayan's stage career include the male leads in Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare & Company); Tom Stoppard's Indian Ink (Wilma Theatre); Rostand's Cyrano, Sheridan's The Rivals, and Rodgers and Hammerstein's The Boys from Syracuse (Baltimore CenterStage), and in The People Next Door (Yale Repertory Theatre). He appeared in Second Stage's Off Broadway Revival of Eric Bogosian's subUrbia; the world premiere of Suzan-Lori Parks' F*CKing A at the New York Shakespeare Festival at The Public Theatre; the Kennedy Center's revival of Terrence McNally's The Lisbon Traviata; the musical Yeast Nation (NY Fringe Fest La MaMa) from the creators of Urinetown; and the national tour of Miss Saigon.

Other regional credits include Two Gentlemen of Verona (Shakespeare Theatre); Love's Labour's Lost (Shakespeare & Company); Metamorphoses (Cincinnati Playhouse); The Winter's Tale (Missouri Rep); and Les Miserables (St. Louis MUNY).

On film, Narayan is best known for co-starring as Rajneesh with Mike Myers, in the Paramount Pictures comedy The Love Guru.

Narayan stars as the romantic lead in Sudhish Kamath's Good Night|Good Morning, which he co-produced, and Shailja Gupta's Walkaway. He recently co-starred with Lucy Hale in the Warner Brothers/ABC Family comedy A Cinderella Story: Once Upon a Song, is featured in M. Night Shyamalan's The Last Airbender; and co-starred with Canadian Comic Russell Peters in Quarterlife Crisis (Showtime). His guest starring appearances on TV include "Unforgettable" (CBS), "Rubicon" (AMC), "Nurse Jackie" (Showtime), "The Sopranos" (HBO), "Law & Order: SVU" (NBC),"Cashmere Mafia" (ABC), "Lipstick Jungle"(NBC).

Narayan, whose other love has always been music, is an accomplished vocalist and songwriter, plays classical and Indian Classical saxophone, and is a graduate of the Carnegie Mellon University School of Music.

In 2003, he was invited to sing at a small state dinner for the first official visit of President George W. Bush to the UK. Narayan sang for and met the Queen of England, The Royal Family, President Bush and Colin Powell. He has had the privilege to sing for then Senator John Kerry's presidential campaign sponsored by Hillary Clinton as well as elsewhere with Cyndi Lauper, Garth Hudson and Martha Wainwright. As a recording artist, Narayan has collaborated on and recorded original and cover tracks for feature film soundtracks including The Love Guru, Cinderella Story: Once Upon a Song, Hiding Divya, Good Night|Good Morning, Walkaway and Vanessa Williams' And Then Came Love. Narayan collaborated with Grammy winner Frank London numerous times around the world, most recently recording and performing for his Soundbrush records' Klezmer concept album A Night in the Old Marketplace. As the lead vocalist, Narayan has performed the concert version of the album throughout Europe and North America.

He is currently working on a new Klezmer/Desi collaboration with London and master percussionist Deep Singh, whom he performed with in Bombay Dreams.

Narayan is lead singer of the band Darunam with Radovan Jovicevic, founding member of Yugoslavia's Grupa Zana. The band brings together the melodies and rhythms from three homelands: America, India, and Serbia. Their album of Electronic Lounge/World Gypsy music with Canadian Clarinetist Milan Milosevic entitled The Last Angel on Earth was released live on CBC national radio in Canada in 2010 and is available on itunes.

Narayan currently serves as a Trustee on the board of Carnegie Mellon University, his alma mater.