Prasanna Puwanarajah
Actor
Biography
Prasanna Puwanarajah (Tamil: பிரசன்னா புவனராஜா; born 1981) is a British actor, director, writer, and former junior medical doctor.
Puwanarajah was born at Ipswich Hospital in Suffolk to Tamil Sri Lankan parents from Sri Lanka, his mother a psychiatrist and his father a dentist. He spent his early childhood on Churchill Avenue in Ipswich before the family moved to Hampshire when he was four. He participated in school plays and spent a season with the National Youth Theatre, but thought of acting as more of a hobby than a career choice at the time.
He trained in Medicine at New College, Oxford. After working as a junior doctor in reconstructive surgery for over three years, Puwanarajah decided to take a year out. It was during this time he decided to become a full-time actor, describing it as "more of a strong pull towards something else" than a "push away from" his medical career.
As Director
Filmography
The Gunman
as Doctor (UCL) 2015
Diana
as Martin Bashir 2013
The Stoning of Soraya M.
as Revolutionary Guard 2009
Möbius
as Saïd 2013
The Vote
as Tom Baird 2015
National Theatre Live: Hamlet
as Guildenstern 2010
The Baby Shower
2016
National Theatre Live: London Assurance
as Servant 2010
National Theatre Live: Dara
as Prosecutor Talib 2020