Ray
Panthaki Actor/Producer
B r e a k t h r o u g h B r i t s 2 01 4
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f Ray Panthaki has a face you think you’ve seen before, that’s because he has and you did. Like many British actors, Panthaki cut his teeth on television, and starred in a variety of one-shot dramas and longrunning serials over the last decade or so. But a turning point came in 2006 with Kidulthood, which Panthaki not only acted in but also co-produced. Since then, Panthaki has been carving out a career on the other side of the camera. The most recent addition is 2014’s Convenience, a smart and riotous comedy in which he stars alongside Adeel Akhtar and Vicky McClure. He has also acted in Amit Gupta’s One Crazy Thing, and is due to star in Fortunate Sons, a film about honour killings, later this year. Panthaki is particularly proud of a short film he wrote, directed and produced last year called Life Sentence. A fictional story about inner city knife crime, it won several awards and is being used for educational purposes in schools and young offender institutions across the UK. “Knife crime is very personal to me,” explains Panthaki. “I’m so proud of what we achieved with Life Sentence and it has given me the desire to direct more. It’s having an impact on people and that’s very fulfilling. “But it’s been a long hard graft getting to this point. I took a decision to earn my stripes and I’ve made many sacrifices in my life over the past 10 years to get here. I feel that all the artistic sacrifices I’ve made have been worth it.”
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