Varun Dhawan (born 24 April 1987) is a Bollywood actor and son of film director David Dhawan, he studied Business Management from the Nottingham Trent University after which he worked as an assistant director to Karan Johar on the 2010 drama My Name Is Khan. Dhawan made his acting debut with Johar’s 2012 romantic comedy Student of the Year, for which he received a Filmfare nomination for Best Male Debut.

Dhawan established himself in Bollywood by starring in the romance Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania (2014) and the dance film ABCD 2 (2015), both of which earned over ₹1 billion (US$15 million) worldwide. He garnered critical acclaim and received a Filmfare Award for Best Actor nomination for portraying an avenger in Sriram Raghavan’s crime thriller Badlapur (2015). He also starred opposite Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol and Kriti Sanon in Rohit Shetty’s romantic drama Dilwale (2015). He next starred in Rohit Dhawan’s (brother) crime-drama Dishoom (2016).

Moreover, Dhawan performs on stage and has co-hosted two award ceremonies. In 2013, he performed at the Filmfare, Screen, and Stardust award ceremonies, and at an event in Hong Kong. He hosted the 2013 Stardust Awards ceremony with Sidharth Malhotra and Ayushmann Khurrana, and a segment of the 59th Filmfare Awards. He was also part of the 20th Screen Awards, co-hosting the show alongside Shahrukh Khan and Richa Chadda. In 2013, Dhawan performed at a special event alongside Malhotra, Alia Bhatt, Aditya Roy Kapur, Shraddha Kapoor and Huma Qureshi to raise funds for the flood-affected victims of Uttarakhand.