Rajiv Surendra

Rajiv Surendra is a Canadian artist, writer, and actor, of Indian origin. Besides his role as Kevin Gnapoor in the cult classic teen comedy Mean Girls, he is well- known in the mainstream for his 2016 memoir, Elephants in My Backyard. Born in Toronto, Ontario in 1989 to Tamil immigrants from India, Rajiv grew up with interest in art forms like calligraphy, painting, sculpting, pottery and chalk designing. As a hobby, he copied handwritten letters from the 1800’s that his parents bought for him from museums. By the age of 15, he had mastered calligraphy. He further specialized in Arts by attending Wexford for the Arts High School, where he studied painting, sculpting, pottery and even music theater, before going to the University of Toronto.

Having developed a keen interest in acting in school, Rajiv auditioned and appeared as one of the lead characters, Chuck Singh in the third season of the sketch comedy System Crash, which aired on YTV. The series ran from 1999-2001 and revolved around a group of students in the fictional Lambton Junior High. In 2004, he secured the role of rapper and mathlete Kevin Gnapoor in the hit Mean Girls. Although a tertiary character, Kevin Gnapoor became legendary with the growing popularity of the movie. Rajiv also performed a rap for the final soundtrack of the film. Post the success of Mean Girls, Rajiv was not able to land further film roles. Passionate towards his hobbies, Rajiv started and successfully runs his own calligraphy business called Letters in Ink, after being suggested by the manager of a paper shop where he worked.

He is also active in chalk designing, creating chalk work around New York Click to look into! >> Read More... restaurants. In the fall of 2016, Rajiv released his memoir ‘Elephants in My Backyard’, published by Regan Arts, based on his failed endeavors to secure the titular role in the 2012 Academy Award winning movie, Life of Pi. According to the book, Rajiv spent six years in research of the role after reading the novel which served as the basis of the movie. Rajiv claimed to have similarities between his life and the lead character’s, including the fact that his parents’ house was next to the Toronto Zoo. The book details his journey and was well received, being long listed by Canada Reads in its 2017 edition. Rajiv currently resides in Manhattan and works as an artist.