Ashish Vidyarthi (born 19 June 1962) is an Indian actor who predominantly works in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, English, Odia, Marathi and Bengali films. He is noted for his antagonist and character roles. In 1995, he received the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor for Drohkaal.

Early life :

Ashish Vidyarthi was born on 19 June 1962 in Delhi, India to a Malayali father from Kannur in Kerala, and a Bengali mother from Rajasthan. His mother Reba Vidyarthi (Née: Chattopadhyay) was a Kathak guru, while his father Govind Vidyarthi is an expert in cataloging and archiving vanishing Performing Arts of India for the Sangeet Natak Akademi. He attended National School of Drama until 1990 and associated himself with another theatre group, Act One, run by N. K. Sharma.

Career :

In 1992, he moved to Bombay (now Mumbai). Ashish played the role of V. P. Menon in his first film, Sardar, based on Sardar Vallabhai Patel's Life. Though, his first release was Drohkaal, for which he won a National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1995. He is also renowned for his role as Ashutosh, in 1942:A Love Story. Ashish received the Star Screen Award for Best Actor in a Negative Role, for the 1996 film Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin.

Vidhyarthi has worked in 11 languages in over 300 films. He is the co-founder & curator of AVID MINER Conversations, which are interactive modules customized for organizations.

Currently he has a YouTube channel with over one million subscriber and he often vlogs about food.