Jaideep Ahlawat (born 8 February 1980)^[1] is an Indian actor who is known for his work in Hindi films and series. After graduating from the Film and Television Institute of India, he played minor roles in several films before appearing in the crime film Gangs of Wasseypur (2012).^[2] This was followed by supporting roles in several films, including Commando: A One Man Army (2013), Gabbar Is Back (2015), Vishwaroopam II (2018).^[3][4]

Ahlawat gained wider recognition for his roles in the mainstream films Raees (2017) and Raazi (2018).^[5] In 2020, he gained acclaim for starring as a cop in the streaming series Paatal Lok, winning a Filmfare OTT Award. He received a nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in An Action Hero (2022), and has since starred in the 2023 films Jaane Jaan and Three of Us.

Jaideep was born in Kharkara, Meham village in Rohtak district of Haryana state.^[6] He got his high school certificate from Govt. High School, Kharkara. He attended Jat College, Rohtak. After his graduation, Ahlawat did a MA in English from Maharshi Dayanand University in 2005. He completed his acting graduation from FTII in 2008, where Rajkummar Rao, Vijay Varma, and Sunny Hinduja were his acting mates.^[7]

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Jaideep did theatre at a young age but wanted to be an Indian Army officer. However, after not clearing his SSB interviews, multiple times, he ventured into acting. He used to do stage shows in Punjab and Haryana.^[8] He started to take acting seriously only after his graduation. He entered the film world the hard way, without any godfather.^[9] After completing his education in 2008, he headed to Mumbai to pursue his dreams to become an actor. He started his career in Bollywood.

He was first noticed in a negative character portrayal in Priyadarshan's Khatta Meetha (2010). In the same year he appeared in Aakrosh with Ajay Devgn.^[10] Thereafter he did more films including Anurag Kashyap's Gangs of Wasseypur (2012) and Kamal Haasan's Vishwaroopam (2012).^[11][12] Gangs of Wasseypur came as a turning point in Jaideep’s life, as its success helped him gain enough recognition in India. Jaideep then appeared in a Tamil spy thriller film Vishwaroopam with Haasan, which turned out to be a great success in the south in 2013. He appeared in a Hindi version of the same film called Vishwaroop, made in the same year, which gave him more recognition. Impressed by his acting skills and popularity, Haasan got him into the sequel Vishwaroopam 2 as well, which released in 2016.

He was also seen in the series Bard of Blood,^[13] and played a negative character in Bollywood film, Khaali Peeli, which was released in October 2020.^[14]