Actor Adeel Akhtar was born in Hammersmith, London on 18 September 1980 and is 45 years old. He is best known for his roles in Murdered by My Father, Sherwood, Victoria & Abdul, Fool Me Once, and Enola Holmes. Here's five things you might not know about Adeel Akhtar:
1. Love is in the air-port
Adeel's father is from Pakistan and his mother is from Kenya. His parents met and fell in love when working at Heathrow Airport.
2. Acting pioneer
In 2017, Adeel won the BAFTA Television Best Actor award for his role in the television drama film Murdered by My Father. He made history as the first non-white male actor to win this award. In 2023 he won the Best Supporting Actor TV BAFTA for his role in Sherwood.
3. Career change
Adeel completed a law degree at Oxford Brookes University before changing to acting and moving to the Actors Studio Drama School in New York City.
4. Family life
Adeel is married to Alexis Burke, a documentary director, and they have two children.
5. Wrongly detained
In 2002, following the 9/11 attacks, Adeel was detained for hours at JFK airport after being wrongly identified as a terror suspect. In an interview with the Guardian in 2025, he said that the experience has informed the roles he's chosen to play.