Biographie
A South African actor, comedian and voice artist best known for his starring role as Ravi Chetty, the head bartender of the Kings Casino bar who specializes in cocktails and "flaring" for the customers, in the SABC 3 telenovela High Rollers, and for his recurring role as Mr Govender on the SABC 1 sitcom Thandeka's Diary.
He hails from the little town of Secunda where he spent most of his childhood locked away in his bedroom embracing his introvertism and perfecting his programming skills. However, working in the real world of IT didn't quite stimulate all his pleasure zones, so Jai'prakash developed a personality, promptly announced that he would be an actor and hasn't been taken seriously since.
In 2004, he spent a year studying Musical Theatre at the Tswane University of Technology, and followed that up with numerous workshops and short courses within the industry. Also credited as Jai Prakash, he subsequently performed in a variety of stage shows, public park performances, physical theatre pieces and children's theatre shows. In fact, his physical performance skills in particular were well received in the children's theatre shows Aladdin (2008) and Charlotte's Web (2008), the seductively naughty School of Whoredom (2009), and the more controversial The Tragic Life and Death of Doctor Faustus (2008).
2012 saw his first major TV gig on the popular South African soap opera, 7de Laan, and by 2015 he landed his first starring television role when his character on High Rollers was upgraded from recurring to regular for the second season, when the show format changed from a weekly drama series to a three-day-a-week telenovela. In the same year, he secured a regular role on the sitcom Thandeka's Diary, featured in a couple of commercials, and secured roles in the movies Free State, The Deadline (a short film), and My Father's War.
Apart from plying his trade as an actor and writer with the occasionally splurges of bodywork therapy and web programming, Jai'prakash can be found hiking, climbing, playing video games, traveling and generally adventuring. He enjoys socializing in the natural outdoors and being active, constantly working on maintaining that perfect tan.
