Rajkummar Rao, born Rajkumar Yadav in a large joint family in Haryana, is a theatre and film actor. His father was a government employee in the revenue department. His mother died in 2016 of a heart attack. He has two siblings, sister Monika and brother Amit.

Young Rajkumar studied at the Shri Shiv Narain Sidheswar Senior Secondary Public School, Gurgaon, and graduated in arts from Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma College in Delhi University’s South campus. During his college days, he became involved in theatre at the Shri Ram Centre for the Performing Arts, Delhi. After graduating, he completed a course in acting from the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune.

Rajkumar Yadav made his Hindi film debut with Dibakar Banerjee’s anthology movie LSD: Love Sex Aur Dhokha (2010). In 2011, he starred in two films, Ragini MMS and Shaitan. The following year, he played Shamshad Alam in part 2 of Anurag Kashyap's magnum opus Gangs Of Wasseypur, which starred another outstanding actor, Nawazuddin Siddiqui. He then played Lokenath Bal in the historical war drama film Chittagong (2012) and Devrath Kulkarni in the movie Talaash: The Answer Lies Within (2012).

For his role in Abhishek Kapoor’s Kai Po Che! (2013), a film based on Chetan Bhagat's novel The 3 Mistakes of My Life, he was nominated for the Filmfare Best Supporting Actor award. The same year, he starred in Boyss Toh Boyss Hain and the biographical drama Shahid, which was to be his breakthrough film. Yadav, who had by now changed his name to Rajkummar Rao, gained critical acclaim for his portrayal of the late activist lawyer Shahid Azmi in the film directed by Hansal Mehta.

In 2014, Rajkummar Rao starred in the hit movie Queen (2014) and CityLights (2014). In 2015, he acted in Dolly Ki Doli and Hamari Adhuri Kahani. He then starred in the biographical drama Aligarh (2016). In 2017, he did the survival drama Trapped and the romantic comedy Bareilly Ki Barfi. He also got a lot of praise for his lead role in and as Newton (2017).

The year 2017 was an important one in Rajkummar Rao's career as he also played Subhas Chandra Bose in the historical period drama web series Bose: Dead/Alive, played a 300-plus year-old man in the Sushant Singh Rajput-starrer Raabta (2017), and also featured in the romantic drama Shaadi Mein Zaroor Aana and the romantic comedy Behen Hogi Teri.

The current year has also seen Rajkummar Rao at his prolific best. He has already featured in Hansal Mehta's Omerta, Atul Manjrekar's Fanney Khan with Anil Kapoor and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Tabrez Noorani's hard-hitting drama on human trafficking Love Sonia, and Amar Kaushik's horror comedy Stree (2018), which proved to be a sleeper hit. Next year he is expected to be seen in Mental Hai Kya with his Simran co-star Kangana Ranaut and Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga, among others.

Rajkummar Rao has won several awards, including the Filmfare Critics award for Best Actor for Trapped, the Filmfare Best Supporting Actor award for Bareilly Ki Barfi, the National Film award for Best Actor and the Filmfare Critics award for Best Actor for Shahid, and the Asia Pacific Screen award for Best Actor for Newton.