Rajiv Surendra

Rajiv Surendra (born in Toronto in 1989) is a Canadian film and television actor and son of Tamil immigrants to Canada. He attended a special-arts high school, Wexford School for the Arts, specializing in painting, sculpting and pottery and continued his studies in University of Toronto. He appeared as Barney Oscarson in Radio Free Roscoe television series in 2003. But he is best known for playing the beloved rapping mathlete, Kevin Gnapoor in the film Mean Girls. Rajiv Surendra also performs "The Mathlete Rap" on the soundtrack of the film.

In 2003 Rajiv was acting in Mean Girls, when a cameraman on set gave him a copy of Life of Pi, inadvertently changing the course of his life.

Rajiv dove into the novel, mesmerized by all the similarities between Pi and himself-both boys are five-foot-five, with coffee colored complexions, both lived by a zoo, both share a South Indian culture. When Rajiv learns that Life of Pi will be made into a major motion picture, he is convinced Pi is the role he is destined to play.

To land the role he must embody the character of the sixteen-year-old Tamil schoolboy. He takes a great leap of faith, quits university and buys a one-way ticket to India. Thus begins the journey of a lifetime. From Rajiv's native Toronto to the sacred stone temples of South India, he travels to the frigid waters off the coast of rural Maine where he befriends an actual castaway and, eventually, finds resolution in the most unexpected of places-the cobbled streets of Munich.

Rajiv's book, The Elephants in My Backyard, is a profound and inspiring story of self-discovery in the face of failure-poignant, funny, colorful, and absolutely unforgettable.