Vicky Kaushal (pronounced ; born 16 May 1988) is an Indian actor who works in Hindi films. He is the recipient of a National Film Award and a Filmfare Award, and has appeared in Forbes India's Celebrity 100 list of 2019.
Born to the action director Sham Kaushal, Kaushal pursued an engineering degree from the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Technology. Aspiring to take up a career in film, he assisted Anurag Kashyap in the crime drama Gangs of Wasseypur (2012) and went on to play minor roles in two of Kashyap's productions. His first leading role was in the independent drama Masaan (2015), which earned him the IIFA and Screen Awards for Best Male Debut, following which he starred as an unhinged cop in Kashyap's psychological thriller Raman Raghav 2.0 (2016).
Kaushal rose to prominence in 2018 with supporting roles in Raazi and Sanju, two of the highest-grossing Hindi films of the year. For the latter, he won the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor. His 2018 projects also included starring roles in the Netflix films Love per Square Foot and Lust Stories. The following year, he played the lead role of a military officer in the commercially successful action film Uri: The Surgical Strike, winning the National Film Award for Best Actor.