British-Pakistani actor Adeel Akhtar is the first non-white male to win BAFTA award in 62 years history of the ceremony. He made BAFTA TV history by bagging the Best Actor trophy for his brilliant performance in BBC Three drama Murdered By My Father.
British-Pakistani actor Adeel Akhtar is the first non-white male to win BAFTA award in 62 years history of the ceremony. He made BAFTA TV history by bagging the Best Actor trophy for his brilliant performance in BBC Three drama Murdered By My Father.
The drama featured Akhtar as a man who murders his daughter in the name of honour as she falls in love with a guy despite being committed to someone else.
The screenwriter of Murdered By My Father, Vinay Patel took to Twitter to share the big news along with a picture with Akhtar. “First non-white fella to win a #Bafta TV award for best actor? This guy. (Not me, obviusly),” he tweeted.
This particular award holds special significance. Though a lot of non-white actors have been nominated in the category (Idris Elba for Luther, David Oyelowo for Small Island), Akhtar is the first one to be honoured with the award. Last year, Akhtar was nominated in the BAFTA’s Best Supporting Actor category for his role as Wilson Wilson in Utopia.
The actor shot to fame as a Muslim extremist, Faisal, in Chris Morris’s film Four Lions (2010). He also starred in sci-fi drama Utopia and comedy drama Trollied apart from featuring in Apple Tree Yard and Le Carre’s The Night Manager.
