Prakash Raj is an Indian actor, film director, producer and television presenter who mainly works in the South Indian film industry.^[1] He acted in back-to-back stage shows for ₹300 a month in the initial stages of his career when he joined Kalakshetra, Bengaluru, and he has 2,000 street theatre performances to his credit.^[2]

After working in the Kannada television industry and Kannada cinema for a few years, he made his debut in Tamil cinema through Duet (1994) by K. Balachander and has since been a commercially successful film star in Tamil. In remembrance, he named his production company Duet Movies.^[3][4] Prakash Raj's work in various languages like Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Hindi, Malayalam and English has placed him among the most sought after actors in Indian cinema.^[5][6] He has played a variety of roles, most notably as the antagonist and, of late, as a character actor. Prakash, as an actor has won a National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1998 for Mani Ratnam's Iruvar and a National Film Award for Best Actor in 2009 for his role in Kanchivaram, a Tamil film directed by Priyadarshan,^[7] and as a producer has won a National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Kannada for Puttakkana Highway directed by his long-time theatre friend B. Suresh in 2011. Prakash was also the host of Neengalum Vellalam Oru Kodi during the shows second season. He has appeared in 398 films.