Prasanna Puwanarajah

Prasanna Puwanarajah (Tamil: பிரசன்னா புவனராஜா; born 1981) is a British actor, director, writer, and former junior medical doctor. Puwanarajah was born at Ipswich Hospital in Suffolk to Tamil Sri Lankan parents from Sri Lanka, his mother a psychiatrist and his father a dentist. He spent his early childhood on Churchill Avenue in Ipswich before the family moved to Hampshire when he was four. He participated in school plays and spent a season with the National Youth Theatre, but thought of acting as more of a hobby than a career choice at the time. He trained in Medicine at New College, Oxford. After working as a junior doctor in reconstructive surgery for over three years, Puwanarajah decided to take a year out. It was during this time he decided to become a full-time actor, describing it as "more of a strong pull towards something else" than a "push away from" his medical career.

Works

The Crown
8.2

The Crown

The gripping, decades-spanning inside story of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the Prime Ministers who shaped Britain's post-war destiny. The Crown tells the inside story of two of the most famous addresses in the world – Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street – and the intrigues, love lives and machinations behind the great events that shaped the second half of the 20th century. Two houses, two courts, one Crown.

Release Date2016-11-04

Charactersd Martin Bashir

Episode Count2

Vote Count2189

The Sarah Jane Adventures
7.1

The Sarah Jane Adventures

Sarah Jane Smith is a truly remarkable woman who inhabits a world of mystery, danger and wonder; a world where aliens are commonplace and the Earth is under constant threat. A world that Maria Jackson, a seemingly ordinary girl, can only dream of – until she moves in next door. Nothing will ever be ordinary again.

Release Date2007-09-24

Charactersd Car Salesman

Episode Count1

Vote Count108

Patrick Melrose
7.5

Patrick Melrose

A critical and often humorous look at the upper class, tracking the protagonist's harrowing odyssey from a deeply traumatic childhood through adult substance abuse and, ultimately, toward recovery.

Release Date2018-05-12

Charactersd Johnny

Episode Count4

Vote Count282

You, Me and the Apocalypse
6.8

You, Me and the Apocalypse

When the news is announced that a comet is on an unavoidable collision course with Earth, the most hilarious and unexpected chain of events imaginable is set in motion.

Release Date2015-09-30

Charactersd Rajesh

Episode Count5

Vote Count105

The Listeners
4.3

The Listeners

An English teacher begins to hear a low humming sound that no one else around her can hear.

Release Date2024-11-19

Charactersd Paul

Episode Count4

Vote Count11

Ten Percent
5.5

Ten Percent

A London talent agency’s employees must scramble to keep their star clients happy and their business afloat after the sudden death of their founder.

Release Date2022-04-28

Charactersd Dan Bala

Episode Count8

Vote Count10

Payback
6.2

Payback

Lexie Noble lives a great life on the outskirts of Edinburgh… until her husband is murdered. As she struggles to make sense of what happened, she learns he had been laundering money for notorious crime boss Cal Morris. As a partner in her late husband's accountancy firm, both Morris and the police will be interested in controlling her next moves.

Release Date2023-10-04

Charactersd DC Jibran Khan

Episode Count6

Vote Count25

Defending the Guilty
7.1

Defending the Guilty

Will Packham is an idealistic pupil barrister - or idealistic for now. Can Will hold onto his principles and prove he has what it takes?

Release Date2018-09-19

Charactersd Ashley

Episode Count6

Vote Count10

Critical
6.8

Critical

The Major Trauma Centre is a state-of-the-art unit which treats only the most gravely ill or seriously injured. Whether that patient lives or dies is determined by knife-edge decisions and procedures, but can the diverse team of medical professionals knit together and rise to the challenge? Our team hold a life in their hands but in every case they face the agonisingly real fear that it could slip through their fingers.

Release Date2015-02-24

Charactersd Ramakrishna Chandramohan

Episode Count13

Vote Count15

7.6

The Stoning of Soraya M.

In 1986 Iran, Sahebjam, whose car breaks down in a remote village, enters into a conversation with Zahra, who relays to him the story about her niece, Soraya, whose arranged marriage to an abusive tyrant ended in tragedy.

Release Date2009-06-26

Charactersd Revolutionary Guard

Vote Count238

5.7

The Gunman

Eight years after fleeing the Congo following his assassination of that country's minister of mining, former assassin Jim Terrier is back, suffering from PTSD and digging wells to atone for his violent past. After an attempt is made on his life, Terrier flies to London to find out who wants him dead -- and why. Terrier's search leads him to a reunion with Annie, a woman he once loved, who is now married to an oily businessman with dealings in Africa.

Release Date2015-02-16

Charactersd Doctor (UCL)

Vote Count968

5.6

Diana

During the last two years of her life, Princess Diana campaigns against the use of land mines and has a secret love affair with a Pakistani heart surgeon.

Release Date2013-09-19

Charactersd Martin Bashir

Vote Count491

5.7

Möbius

An FSB officer falls in love with his agent, an American woman who works as a trader in a Russian bank.

Release Date2013-02-17

Charactersd Saïd

Vote Count227

8.4

The Vote

On 7 May, churches, school halls, and back rooms of community centres will be turned into polling stations, staffed by council workers and volunteers. A church polling station is the backdrop for a real-time play for theatre and TV, called The Vote, staged at the exact moment in which the action is set - the last 90 minutes before polls close.

Release Date2015-05-07

Charactersd Tom Baird

Vote Count6

7.8

National Theatre Live: Hamlet

A 2010 broadcast of Hamlet returns to cinemas as part of the NT's 50th anniversary celebrations. Following his celebrated performances at the National Theatre in Burnt by the Sun, The Revenger's Tragedy, Philistines and The Man of Mode, Rory Kinnear plays Hamlet in a dynamic new production of Shakespeare’s complex and profound play about the human condition, directed by Nicholas Hytner. He is joined by Clare Higgins (Gertrude), Patrick Malahide (Claudius), David Calder (Polonius), James Laurenson (Ghost/Player King) and Ruth Negga (Ophelia).

Release Date2010-12-09

Charactersd Guildenstern

Vote Count5

9.0

National Theatre Live: Dara

1659 Mughal, India. Two brothers, Dara and Aurangzeb, are both heirs to the Muslim empire. Dara, the crown prince, has the love of the people – and of his emperor father – but younger brother Aurangzeb holds a different vision for India’s future. Now they fight ferociously for succession.

Release Date2020-12-01

Charactersd Prosecutor Talib

Vote Count1

7.0

National Theatre Live: London Assurance

Grace has agreed to marry Sir Harcourt in return for his financial support of her family. At a house party in her father's place, Harcourt's son Charles also falls in love with Grace. When his father appears on the scene, he has to convince him that there is a case of mistaken identity and he is somebody else. Then Lady Gay Spanker, a married woman also visiting at the house, is persuaded by Charles to seduce his father and thus divert his attention from Grace. Much confusion and scheming ensues.

Release Date2010-06-24

Charactersd Servant

Vote Count1

Malcolm

In the aftermath of an emotionally abusive relationship, a man seeks couples counselling with a sock puppet likeness of his ex-boyfriend, Malcolm.

Release Date2023-07-14

Charactersd Joe

Breathtaking
6.6

Breathtaking

A searing, thought-provoking and poignant account of an NHS doctor in the eye of the storm during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Release Date2024-02-19

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Episode Count3

Vote Count9

6.6

Ballywalter

A university drop-out living with her mum and making money as an unlicensed minicab driver picks up a budding stand-up comic whose marriage has recently broken up.

Release Date2023-09-22

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count5

6.9

Boy

The winner of British Airways ”Great Britons” competition, the film tells the story of a carpenter at the Olympic Velodrome track and his cyclist son.

Release Date2012-03-23

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Vote Count13

Too Much

Too Much

When a heartbroken New Yorker moves to London hoping for a love story, she falls for an indie musician who's anything but the typical romantic hero.

Release Date2025-07-10

Episode Count10

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