Hiran Abeysekera

Acting

Hiran Abeysekera

Colombo, Sri Lanka

Hiran Abeysekera is a Sri Lankan actor. He won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor for his performance in the stage adaptation of Life of Pi. On television, he is known for his roles in Russell T Davies' A Midsummer Night's Dream (2016) and the fantasy dance series Find Me in Paris (2018–2019).

Acting credits

The Magic Faraway Tree poster
6.2

A modern family relocates to the countryside where the children discover a magical tree with eccentric residents. They're transported to fantastical lands, rekindling their family bond through adventures.

The Magic Faraway Tree

2026

Supervized poster
5.2

Four aging superheroes in a retirement home in Ireland come together for one last hurrah.

Supervized

2019

Unleaded poster
6.1

Three thugs attempting to rob a petrol station are interrupted by three stoners with a severe case of the munchies.

Unleaded

2015

A Midsummer Night's Dream poster
5.2

At the tyrannical court of Athens, pitiless dictator Theseus plans his wedding to Hippolyta, a prisoner of war, while young Hermia is sentenced to death by her own father for loving the wrong man. Meanwhile, in the town below, an amateur theatre group rehearses. And beyond Athens, in the wild woods, dark forces are stirring...

A Midsummer Night's Dream

2016

National Theatre Live: Behind the Beautiful Forevers poster
6.0

India is surging with global ambition. But beyond the luxury hotels surrounding Mumbai airport lies a makeshift slum, full of people with plans of their own. Zehrunisa and her son Abdul aim to recycle enough rubbish to fund a proper house. Sunil, twelve and stunted, wants to eat until he’s as tall as Kalu the thief. Asha seeks to steal government anti-poverty funds to turn herself into a ‘first-class person’, while her daughter Manju intends to become the slum’s first female graduate. But their schemes are fragile; global recession threatens the garbage trade, and another slum-dweller is about to make an accusation that will destroy herself and shatter the neighbourhood.

National Theatre Live: Behind the Beautiful Forevers

2015

National Theatre Live: Hamlet poster
6.5

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. Are you watching closely? Trapped between duty and doubt, surrounded by power and privilege, young Prince Hamlet dares to ask the ultimate question—you know the one. Olivier Award-winner Hiran Abeysekera (Life of Pi) is Hamlet in this fearless, contemporary take on Shakespeare's famous tragedy. National Theatre Deputy Artistic Director, Robert Hastie (Standing at the Sky's Edge, Operation Mincemeat) directs this sharp, stylish and darkly funny reimagining.

National Theatre Live: Hamlet

2026

National Theatre Live: Life of Pi poster
NR

Puppetry, magic and storytelling combine in a unique, Olivier Award-winning stage adaptation of the best-selling novel. After a cargo ship sinks in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean, a 16-year-old boy named Pi is stranded on a lifeboat with four other survivors – a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan and a Royal Bengal tiger. Filmed live in London’s West End and featuring state-of-the-art visuals, the epic journey of endurance and hope is bought to life in a breath-taking new way for cinemas screens.

National Theatre Live: Life of Pi

2023

RSC Live: Hamlet poster
8.2

Hamlet has the world at his feet. Young, wealthy and living a hedonistic life studying abroad. Then word reaches him that his father is dead. Returning home he finds his world is utterly changed, his certainties smashed and his home a foreign land. Struggling to understand his place in a new world order he faces a stark choice. Submit, or rage against the injustice of his new reality. Simon Godwin directs Paapa Essiedu as Hamlet in Shakespeare's searing tragedy. As relevant today as when it was written, Hamlet confronts each of us with the mirror of our own mortality in an imperfect world. Hamlet played in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon until throughout summer 2016.

RSC Live: Hamlet

2016

National Theatre Live: The Father and the Assassin poster
NR

Mahatma Gandhi: lawyer, champion of non-violence, beloved leader. Nathuram Godse: journalist, nationalist – and the man who murdered Gandhi. This gripping play traces Godse's life over 30 years during India’s fight for independence: from a devout follower of Gandhi, through to his radicalisation and their tragic final encounter in Delhi in 1948.

National Theatre Live: The Father and the Assassin

2024

RSC Live: Cymbeline poster
NR

Britain is in crisis. An ineffectual Queen Cymbeline rules over a divided dystopian Britain. Consumed with grief at the death of two of her children, Cymbeline's judgment is clouded. When Innogen, the only living heir, marries her sweetheart Posthumus in secret, an enraged Cymbeline banishes him. Behind the throne, a power-hungry figure plots to seize power by murdering them both. In exile Innogen's husband is tricked into believing she has been unfaithful to him and in an act of impulsive jealousy begins a scheme to have her murdered. Warned of the danger, Innogen runs away from court in disguise and begins a journey fraught with danger that will eventually reunite Cymbeline with a long-lost heir and reconcile the young lovers.

RSC Live: Cymbeline

2016

National Theatre Live: The Jungle Book poster
NR

In the mangroves of the Sundarbans, wolves howl, birds soar and tigers roar. At the heart of this wild and vibrant kingdom, an unlikely child is growing up...Mowgli. Danger stalks the shadows, and threats lie hidden beneath every rock. To protect his family, his friends and the only home he has ever known, this young hero must first discover who he really is and where he truly belongs. Based on the beloved tale by Rudyard Kipling, reimagined by Anupama Chandrasekhar and directed by Indhu Rubasingham, with innovative puppetry by Finn Caldwell and Nick Barnes, this thrilling new adaptation brings the jungle roaring to life in the Olivier Theatre at the National Theatre in London, UK.

National Theatre Live: The Jungle Book

2027