Naveen William Sidney Andrews (born 17 January 1969) is a British and American actor. He is best known for his role as Sayid Jarrah in the television series Lost (2004–2010), for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and a Primetime Emmy Award, as well as winning a Screen Actors Guild Award along with the cast. He has also appeared in films such as The English Patient (1996), Mighty Joe Young (1998), Rollerball (2002), Bride and Prejudice (2004), Planet Terror (2007), The Brave One (2007), and Diana (2013). In 2022, he portrayed Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani in the Hulu miniseries The Dropout.
Early life
Andrews was born on 17 January 1969 in Lambeth, London, to Nirmala, a psychologist, and Stanley Andrews, a businessman, both immigrants from Kerala, India. He was raised in the Methodist Church of Great Britain. In 1985, when he was 16, Andrews began a relationship with the 30-year-old Geraldine Feakins.
He starred in Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love (1996),
Personal life
Andrews's relationship with Geraldine Feakins lasted from 1985 to 1991. Their son, Jaisal Andrews, was born in 1992. He was later in a relationship with actress Barbara Hershey in Los Angeles, starting in 1998. The couple separated briefly in 2005 and, during that time, Andrews had a son with Czech-French actress Elena Eustache. He and Hershey later reconciled, but in 2010, they announced that they had separated. Andrews was in a long custody dispute with Eustache over their son, and on 7 January 2009, he was granted sole legal and physical custody.
Andrews has spoken about his alcoholism and his two-year addiction to heroin in the mid-1990s. He has described an incident in which he collapsed on set and was treated by emergency services.
He plays guitar and sings, while tap dancing to his own tune as a hobby. He became a naturalised U.S. citizen on 27 May 2010.
Filmography
Film
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Year !! Title !! Role !! Notes
|-
| 1991
| London Kills Me
| Bike
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1992
| Wild West
| Zaf
|
|-
| Double Vision
| Jimmy
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1996
| Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love
| Raj Singh
|
|-
| The English Patient
| Kip Singh
|
|-
| 1997
| True Love and Chaos
| Hanif
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1998
| Bombay Boys
| Krishna
|
|-
| Mighty Joe Young
| Pindi
|
|-
| 1999
| Drowning on Dry Land
| Darshan
|
|-
| 2000
| A Question of Faith
| William
|
|-
| 2002
| Rollerball
| Sanjay
|
|-
| 2003
| Easy
| John Kalicharan
|
|-
| 2004
| Bride and Prejudice
| Balraj
|
|-
| 2006
| Provoked: A True Story
| Deepak Ahluwalia
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | 2007
| Grindhouse
| Dr. John "Abby" Abbington
| Segment: Planet Terror
|-
| The Brave One
| Dr. David Kirmani
|
|-
| 2008
| Animals
| Vic
|
|-
| 2013
| Diana
| Dr. Hasnat Khan
|
|-
| 2025
| Last Days
| Sonny
|
|}
Television
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Year !! Title !! Role !! Notes
|-
| 1993
| The Buddha of Suburbia
| Karim Amir
| 4 episodes
|-
| 1996
| The Peacock Spring
| Ravi Battacharya
| rowspan="3" | Television film
|-
| 1998
| My Own Country
| Dr. Abraham Verghese
|-
| 2000
| The Chippendales Murder
| Steve Banerjee
|-
| 2001
| The Beast
| Tamir Naipaul
| Episode: "The Price"
|-
| 2003
| Future Tense
| Miles Gupta
| Unsold TV pilot
|-
| 2004–2010
| Lost
| Sayid Jarrah
| 98 episodes
|-
| 2006
| The Ten Commandments
| Menerith
| Television film
|-
| 2010
| Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
| Detective Ash Ramsey
| Episode: "Shadow"
|-
| 2012
| Sinbad
| Lord Akbari
| 7 episodes
|-
| 2013–2014
| Once Upon a Time in Wonderland
| Jafar
| 13 episodes
|-
| 2015–2018
| Sense8
| Jonas Maliki
| 18 episodes
|-
| 2018–2019
| Instinct
| Julian Cousins
| 21 episodes
|-
| 2022
| The Dropout
| Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani
| 8 episodes
|-
|2022
|The Cleaning Lady
|Robert Kamdar
|5 episodes
|-
|2024
|Last King of the Cross
|Ray Kinnock
|8 episodes
|-
|2024
|The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh
|Mahesh Pradeep
|8 episodes
|}
Video games
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Year !! Title !! Role !! Notes
|-
| 2014
| Far Cry 4
| Sabal
|
|}
Audio
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
!Year!!Title!!Role!!class="unsortable"|Notes
|-
|2024
|The Seneschal: A Rebel Moon Story
|Grigory
|Main role
|-
|2025
|Star Trek: Khan
|Khan Noonien Singh
|Main role
|}
Awards and nominations
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders sortable"
! Year
! Association
! Category
! Project
! Result
! class="unsortable" | Ref.
|-
|1996 || Screen Actors Guild Award || Outstanding Cast in a Motion Picture || The English Patient || ||
|-
|2005 || Primetime Emmy Award || Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series || rowspan=3|Lost || ||
|-
|2006 || Golden Globe Award || Best Supporting Actor - Television || ||
|-
| 2006 || Screen Actors Guild Award || Outstanding Ensemble in a Drama Series || ||
|-
| 2022 || Hollywood Critics Association || Best Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie || The Dropout ||
|-
|}