Sunny Tripathy Biography

Sunny Tripathy (born October 27, 1989), also referred to as stage name "?Sunny T, is an Indian-American actor, comedian, writer, producer, Mr. India Global and a former model.

Personal life

Tripathy, was born in Brampton, Canada to an Indian-American father and mother. Tripathy currently resides in Los Angeles, California and is fluent in English, French, Hindi and Oriya. After high school, Tripathy attended UCLA for engineering and applied for the undergraduate film program but was rejected twice.

In 2005 Sunny was the victim of a hate crime on the day of his prom, where he was attacked by neo-Nazi gang members outside of Stoneridge Mall in Pleasanton, California. The attack on the 16-year-old, which was thought to be racially inclined, took place in broad daylight and left the Foothill High School student in the hospital with limited ability to walk. Tripathy suffered a shattered clavicle, a damaged back, broken nose, a fractured arm and multiple bruises and cuts.

Career

Tripathy won the 1st season of Last Teen Comic Standing at the age of 17 and performed stand-up specials in Toronto, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle.

In 2011, Tripathy"?s short film, Naked Innocence, won several awards. The short was also honored at Warner Bros. in June 2011.

In 2012, he won the titles of Mr. Photogenic and Mr. India West Coast of the Miss India America Pageant. He went on to model for several brands including Mountain Dew, Adidas Collegiate, UCLA, HFDC Bank, Dreams Collection and BearWear.

In fall 2012, Sunny produced a reality television pilot called The Grind featuring Sahil Punamia (Keeping Up With the Guptas), Michael Vayder, Shafic Tayara, pop-artist Vinita and Ron Artest (MettaWorld Peace) from the Los Angeles Lakers. The show was never released to the public.

In December 2012, Tripathy was named among the Top 50 Coolest Desis In The World, sharing the list with Mindy Kaling, Priyanka Chopra, and Malala Yousafzai.

In July 2014 and at the age of 24, Tripathy sold his first pilot script and reached a development deal with 20th Century Fox Television, to create a show based on him and his family.

Charity work

Tripathy is an ambassador to The Hunger Project and is an active donor to the UCLA Ronald Reagan Children's Hospital. In November 2013, he hosted a birthday event to raise money and toys for the hospitals pediatric patients.

Many of Tripathy's film projects often resonate themes of social justice issues. His project, Naked Innocence, was in response to several teen bullying and suicide cases in 2010. The Locket, was in tribute to the victims of the 2011 terrorist attack in Oslo, Norway.

Sunny is involved with other non-profit organizations including Every 15 Minutes, Oriya Society of Americas, SEEDS, and the Sheila Kar Heart Foundation.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Company	Notes
2009	Dance Flick	Club Victim	Paramount Pictures
2010	Naked Innocence	Writer / Director	SunnyTFilms
2010	Keeping Up With The Guptas	Writer / Director	SunnyTFilms
2011	The Locket	Writer / Director	SunnyTFilms
2011	Troublemaker	Sameer	Shetani Films
2012	Sunset Strip	Marketing Agent	SpeakEasy Films
2014	The Grind	Producer / Lead	SunnyTFilms
2014	5 Notes	Writer / Director	Visceral Entertainment	Filming
2014	Rajas of Rodeo	Lead	Lionsgate	In Development
2015	Untitled Sunny Tripathy Project	Writer / Supervising Producer	20th Century Fox Television	In Development
TBD	Mahabharat	Writer / Executive Producer	TBA	In Development

Awards and nominations

Award	Event	Year	Result
PCAC Young Artists Award	PCAC	2007
Best Teen Comedian	Last Teen Comic Standing	2008
Best Drama	Campus Movie Festival UCLA	2010
AT&T Rethink Possible Award	Campus Movie Festival UCLA	2010
People's Choice Award	Campus Movie Festival UCLA	2010
Best Commercial	MoFilm Chevy Volt Competition	2011
Best Drama	Action on Film Festival	2011
Best Music Video	Action on Film Festival	2011
Award of Merit	Accolade Festival	2011
Mr. Photogenic	Mr. / Miss India America	2012
Mr. India Global	Mr. / Miss India America	2012