Nivin Pauly

Nivin Pauly (born 11 October 1984) is an Indian actor and producer who works in Malayalam films. He is a recipient of several awards including three Filmfare South awards and two Kerala State Film Awards.
Nivin applied for the audition and was selected to play one of the main roles in Vineeth Sreenivasan's directorial debut "Malarvaadi Arts Club" in 2009 which was produced by actor Dileep. After playing several small roles, Nivin got his breakthrough with his lead role in the romantic film "Thattathin Marayathu" (2012), which was also directed by Vineeth Sreenivasan. He became known for playing "boy next door" archetype following roles in the bilingual black-comedy thriller "Neram" (2013), the sports-drama "1983" (2014), the romantic-comedy "Ohm Shanthi Oshaana" (2014), the romantic-drama "Bangalore Days" (2014), the comedy road-thriller "Oru Vadakkan Selfie" (2015), and the coming-of-age romantic drama "Premam" (2015). "Bangalore Days" and "Premam" became two among the list of top ten highest-grossing Malayalam films.
Nivin went on to star in the police-drama "Action Hero Biju" (2016), the family-drama "Jacobinte Swargarajyam" (2016), the political-satire "Sakhavu" (2017),family-comedy "Njandukalude Nattil Oridavela" (2017) and the epic film "Kayamkulam Kochunni" (2018) which became the third highest-grossing Malayalam film. Nivin made his debut as a producer with "Action Hero Biju" under his production company Pauly Jr. Pictures. He again produced "Njandukalude Nattil Oridavela".
He won the Filmfare Award for Best Male Debut for his Tamil debut "Neram" (2013). In 2015, Nivin won the Kerala State Film Award for Best Actor for his performances in "Bangalore Days" and "1983". He won the Filmfare Award for Best Actor – Malayalam for "Action Hero Biju" in 2016. In 2020, he won the Kerala State Film Award for Best Actor -Special Mention for his performance in Moothon.
Early life.
Nivin was born into a Syrian Christian family from Aluva, Ernakulam on 11 October 1984. Nivin's father, Pauly Bonaventure, was a mechanic who worked in Aarau, Switzerland and his mother was a nurse at a Swiss hospital. Nivin, who was brought up in Kerala, visited them in Aarau during his vacations, where they stayed for 25 years. He graduated with a Bachelor of Technology degree in Electronics & Communication Engineering from Federal Institute of Science and Technology (FISAT), Angamaly in 2006. Nivin was employed at Infosys in Bangalore through campus placements and worked as a software engineer from 2006 to 2008. However, he resigned and returned home after his father's death. Malayalam actor Tovino Thomas is his second cousin.
Personal life.
He married his long time girlfriend Rinna Joy on 28 August 2010, at St. Dominic Catholic Church in Aluva. They were classmates at FISAT. They have a son and a daughter.
Film career.
Nivin applied for the audition of "Malarvaadi Arts Club", but was not included in the 12 shortlisted actors. However, when one dropped out, he was given a second chance to the audition, and got his debut role. Since then, he had acted in the films "The Metro" and "Sevenes", and had brief appearances in "Traffic" and "Spanish Masala". He appeared in music video "Nenjodu Cherthu" from the album Yuvvh, what "The Hindu" called "a hugely popular" , and became a viral hit on YouTube.
The 2012 film "Thattathin Marayathu" was his acting vehicle, which became the biggest hit of the year. After "Thattathin Marayathu", he was called "the current youth sensation" and "hot property". He received offers from directors including Sathyan Anthikad, Rajesh Pillai, Aashiq Abu and Shyamaprasad.
Nivin made his debut in Tamil with the bilingual film "Neram". His other Malayalam films in 2013 include "Anju Sundarikal" and Sunil Ibrahim's "Arikil Oraal".
In 2014, he appeared in Abrid Shine's directorial debut "1983", where he played the role of Rameshan. It was followed with debutant Jude Anthany Joseph's romantic comedy "Ohm Shanthi Oshaana", in which he portrayed the role Giri. It was released a week after "1983". His next release "Bangalore Days" was directed by Anjali Menon. In the same year, he played an extended cameo in the Lal Jose film "Vikramadithyan". In 2015, Nivin appeared in "Mili", "Oru Vadakkan Selfie" and "Ivide" . He then acted in "Premam", where he played the role of George David. It grossed over 600 million, and went on to become one of the highest grossing Malayalam movies.
Nivin appeared in his first straight Tamil feature film through Gautham Ramachandran's crime drama "Richie" (2017), where he portrayed a small town thug. The film opened to mixed reviews and had an average response commercially, prompting other proposed Tamil films with debutant directors Suryaa Balakumaran and Prabhu Radhakrishnan to be shelved. Nivin next appeared in Geetu Mohandas' film "Moothon".
Filmography.
Short films.
The short film directed by Alphonse Puthren was later included in the 2016 Tamil anthology film Aviyal.