Anand Desai-Barochia (born 3 July) is a British actor. He is best known for his role as Janzo in the CW fantasy series The Outpost (2018–2021) and Bridgerton (2020). Desai-Barochia and Piryanka Chopra's joint campaign with Bumble India premiered in August 2018. The print campaign subsequently aired shortly after.

Anand Desai-Barochia
Anand Desai-Barochia attends Arts For India charity held at BAFTA, London in 2018
Born3 July
Alma materItalia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts
OccupationActor
Years active2008–present

Early life

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Anand Desai-Barochia was born in Nunthorpe, a village in Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, to a mother who was a neuroradiologist and a father in the hotel industry.[1] He is of Indian descent.

Desai-Barochia was introduced to acting through school, where a teacher gave him the lead role in the graduating play.[2][1] Desai-Barochia also learned to play the piano to a reasonable standard.[3] At sixteen, after completing his education at Nunthorpe School, Desai-Barochia auditioned and won a full scholarship to the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts in London.[1] After graduating, he studied at the Lee Strasburg Theatre & Film Institute in Los Angeles in 2010.[4]

Career

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Desai-Barochia made his screen debut in 2011 as a choir boy in Skins, and land small parts in The Fresh Beat Band , Days of Our Lives and the 2013 film Cavemen.[1][5] He secured a larger role as Vikram in the movie The Tiger Hunter in 2016,[6][5] which premiered at the Laemmle Monica Film Center in Santa Monica, California in 2017 [7] and has appeared in 3 episodes of Emmerdale as Sunil Batth in 2017 to 2018.[1] His most successful role to date has been to play the character Janzo the oddball brewer/alchemist [8][5] in 49 episodes of The CW's The Outpost from 2018 to 2020. Desai-Barochia has worked alongside Jessica Green who plays Talon, and Jake Stormoen who plays Garret for two seasons,[9] with a third series filmed in Serbia in late 2020.[1][4]

In 2020, Desai-Barochia appeared in the Netflix period drama Bridgerton as Lord Hardy.[5]

Desai-Barochia was promoted to Associate Producer by The CW for an extended 13 episodes of series 3 of The Outpost in 2021.[10][5] The same year Desai-Barochia Signed with Innovative Artists.[5]

Advocacy and charity work

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Desai-Barochia costars alongside Piryanka Chopra empowring women in India through their joint campaign with Bumble. The campaign was incredibly successful in championing women to have a voice in a country that hasn’t always been so accepting of females at the helm. In India the term “loose” has long been used to denigrate women who choose not to conform to traditional gender norms. Since launch, there have now been over 18 million interactions with women making the first move on Bumble India. (2021)

In October 2023, Desai-Barochia signed the Artists4Ceasefire open letter to Joe Biden, President of the United States, calling for a ceasefire of the Israeli bombardment of Gaza.[11]

Filmography

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Film

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Year Title Role
2011 A Holiday Heist Alfred
2013 Bollywood Invasion (Short) Rahul
2013 Cavemen[5] Giuseppe
2016 The Tiger Hunter[6] Vikram
2019 Foster Boy Sanjay
2020 Lake Mead[5] Sashi
2022 Presence of Love Felix

Television

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Year Title Role Notes
2010 Skins[5] Choir boy 1 episode – "Thomas"
2011 The Fresh Beat Band Frank 1 episode – "Bollywood Beats"
2011–2013 Days of Our Lives[5] Ryan / Actor 3 episodes
2016 Tyrant[5] Male Weapons Maker (Inam) 1 episode – "Ask for the Earth"
2017–2018 Emmerdale Sunil Batth 3 episodes
2020 Bridgerton[5] Lord Hardy 2 episodes
2018–2021 The Outpost Janzo 49 episodes
2022 True Story with Ed and Randall Rick 1 episode – "Abishek's Story"
2022 Everything's Trash Gael 1 episode – "Election Night Is Trash"
2023 Leverage: Redemption Dr. Dunbar 2 episodes

Self

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Year Title Notes
2010 ITV Evening News
2013 The Voice UK
2018 BUILD NYC
2019 Good Morning LA
2018–2019 Afterbuzz TV

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g "Success for Teessider Anand Desai-Barochia in LA". gazettelive.co.uk. May 13, 2013.
  2. ^ "Anand Desai-Barochia on the Outpost and doing things his own way". cliche-magazine. October 2018.
  3. ^ "Anand Desai-Barochia: The Outpost". lapalmemagazine.com. October 2018.
  4. ^ a b "Anand Desai-Barochia Talks "The Outpost"". Build series on youtube.com. August 3, 2018.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "'The Outpost' Star Anand Desai-Barochia Signs With Innovative Artists". msn.com. October 7, 2020.
  6. ^ a b "Luber Roklin Management Signs 'The Outpost's Anand Desai-Barochia". deadline.com. September 28, 2018.
  7. ^ "Actor Anand Desai-Barochia attends the Premiere Of "The Tiger Hunter" in Santa Monica". gettyimages.co.uk. September 22, 2017.
  8. ^ "'The Outpost' Star Anand Desai-Barochia on Loyalty, "Oddball" Characters, and Fans". comicbook.com. July 31, 2018.
  9. ^ "The Featured Presentation – Anand Desai-Barochia". openthetrunk.com. October 17, 2019.
  10. ^ "'The Outpost' Renewed For 13 More Eps At The CW; Actor Anand Desai-Barochia Upped To Associate Producer". msn.com. October 7, 2020. Archived from the original on April 25, 2021.
  11. ^ "Artists4Ceasefire". Artists4Ceasefire. Retrieved December 11, 2023.
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