Movies

Akkineni Naga Chaitanya (born 23 November 1986) is an Indian actor who primarily works in Telugu cinema. He made his acting debut with Josh (2009) and his breakthrough came with Gautham Vasudev Menon-directed Ye Maaya Chesave (2010). He has won several film awards including Filmfare Award for Best Male Debut – South, Nandi Award for Best Supporting Actor and SIIMA Award for Best Actor (Critics).

In his initial years he appeared in successful films including 100% Love (2011), Tadakha (2013) and Manam (2014) along with few films that did not perform well. Chaitanya is known for his notable work in films such as Premam (2016), Majili (2019), Venky Mama (2019), Love Story (2021) and Bangarraju (2022).

He married actress Samantha Ruth Prabhu in October 2017, but they got separated in October 2021.

Early life

Chaitanya was born on 23 November 1986 in Hyderabad to actor Akkineni Nagarjuna and Lakshmi Daggubati. His paternal grandfather, actor Akkineni Nageswara Rao and his maternal grandfather, producer D. Ramanaidu are prominent figures in Telugu cinema. Chaitanya's parents got divorced when he was a child. Both his parents later remarried. While Nagarjuna married former actress Amala Mukherjee, Lakshmi married Sharath Vijayaraghavan, a corporate executive at Sundaram Motors. Chaitanya has a paternal half-brother, actor Akhil Akkineni and a maternal step brother. His maternal uncle Venkatesh and first cousins Rana Daggubati, Sumanth and Sushanth are also actors.

Chaitanya grew up in Chennai, where he was raised for 18 and a half years. He was educated at Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan, Chennai and at AMM School, Chennai. He then completed his graduation from St. Mary's College, Hyderabad. He expressed his desire to Nagarjuna to take up acting as his profession during his second year in college. He enrolled in a three-month acting course in Mumbai. He received further training in acting and martial arts in Los Angeles, apart from taking voice and dialogue coaching for one year before making his acting debut.