Amara Karan

Biography

Amara Karan (born Amara Karunakaran, 1 January 1984, Wimbledon, London, England) is a British actress of Sri Lankan Tamil descent, whose parents emigrated from Zambia to the UK two years before her birth. She attended Wimbledon High School before studying Politics, Philosophy and Economics at St. Catherine's College, Oxford, where she began acting in amateur plays. After graduating, she worked as an investment banker at Hawkpoint and CIBC World Markets before pursuing acting, training at The Arts Educational Schools London. She made her film debut in 2007 in Wes Anderson's The Darjeeling Limited and her stage debut the following year in RSC productions of The Merchant of Venice and The Taming of the Shrew, the latter marking her West End debut at the Novello Theatre. In 2008 she carried the Olympic Torch during its London leg. Since 2016 she has been in a relationship with actor Jamie de Courcey. Her notable film credits include The Darjeeling Limited (2007) (Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody), St Trinian's (2007) (Rupert Everett, Colin Firth), A Fantastic Fear of Everything (2012) (Simon Pegg, Kate Winslet), Jadoo (2013) (Tom Mison, Rafe Spall), The Death and Life of John F. Donovan (2018) (Natalie Portman, James Franco), and House of Spoils (2024). On television she is best known for her role as Chandra Kapoor in HBO's The Night Of (2016), DS Suri Chohan in Stan Lee's Lucky Man (2016–2018), DC Leila Hussain in Hope Street (2021–present), and Indira Mare in Moonhaven (2022), with additional appearances in Doctor Who (2011), The Twilight Zone (2019), Bancroft (2017), and Midsomer Murders (2021).