Naveen Andrews

If you don’t recognize the name, you’ll likely recognize the face. Naveen William Sidney Andrews is the sexy British star of Indian descent on the hit American TV series Lost, but is also well-known for his role on The English Patient back in 1996.

Naveen Andrews was born in London, , on January 17, 1969, and became famous for his “scandalous” romance with his math teacher, Geraldine Feakins, when he was only 16 years old, and with whom he had a son seven years later (in 1992), named Jaisal.

After high school, Andrews went on to study at London ’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama, along with actors Ewan McGregor and David Thewlis. In 1991, he landed his debut film role in Hanif Kureishi’s London Kills Me, which starred Justin Chadwick as Clint Eastwood, Steven Mackintosh, Emer McCourt, and Roshan Seth.

He appeared in a few lesser-known films, TV series and made-for-TV movies until he landed his breakthrough role as Kip in the critically acclaimed film The English Patient in 1996, alongside Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, Willem Dafoe, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Colin Firth.

He also recently starred in Bride and Prejudice, the 2004 “Bollywood” adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice as Balraj Bingley (the character of Charles Bingley), co-starring Aishwarya Rai as Lalita Bakshi (the character of Elizabeth Bennett), Martin Henderson as William Darcy, Nadira Babbar, and Anupam Kher.

But Andrews is now most known for portraying Sayid in the extremely popular TV series Lost, which premiered in 2004 and is still going strong. Lost is about a group of survivors from a plane crash forced to live together on a remote, dangerous island, and co-stars Matthew Fox, Jorge Garcia, Josh Holloway, Daniel Dae Kim, Yoon-jin Kim, Evangeline Lilly, Dominic Monaghan, Terry O’Quinn, and Emilie de Ravin, among others.

Andrews, who is also a guitarist and a singer, was voted one of People magazine’s “World’s Most Beautiful People” in 2006.

Andrews is currently dating actress Barbara Hershey and the couple lives together in L.A. When he and Hershey were separated for a time in 2005, Andrews had a child—his second son all together—with another woman, after which he and Hershey got back together.

Interestingly, Andrews is actually a recovering alcoholic and drug addict. His most difficult times were reportedly in London during his early 20s, which almost ended his budding acting career. He ended up moving to the for rehabilitation and ultimately succeeded.