Avan Tudor Jogia born (February 9, 1992) is a Canadian actor, writer, director, and musician. He first received recognition for portraying Danny Araujo in the television film A Girl Like Me: The Gwen Araujo Story (2006). After moving to the United States in his late teens, he landed various television roles within series such as Caprica (2009–2010).
Jogia had his breakthrough for playing Beck Oliver in the Nickelodeon sitcom Victorious (2010–2013), and rose to mainstream prominence for his roles as Danny Desai in the drama series Twisted (2013), Tutankhamun in the miniseries Tut (2015), Roman Mercer in the paranormal action series Ghost Wars (2017–2018) and Ulysses Zane in the comedy series Now Apocalypse (2019). Numerous credits in television and cinema include Spectacular! (2009), Finding Hope Now (2010), Rags (2012), Ten Thousand Saints (2015), I Am Michael (2015) and Zombieland: Double Tap (2019). His directorial debut came in 2011 with the short film Alex. He stars as Leon S. Kennedy in the 2021 film Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City.
In 2011, Jogia co-founded the LGBT online organization Straight But Not Narrow, which seeks to shape the viewpoints of teenagers and adults on matters pertaining to the LGBT community. In 2019, he published his first book, Mixed Feelings, a series of short stories and poems about multiracial identity. He and his brother Ketan make up the band Saint Ivory. They released an album to complement the book also titled Mixed Feelings.
Avan Tudor Jogia was born on February 9, 1992, in Vancouver, British Columbia, the son of Wendy and Mike Jogia. His father is a British Indian Gujarati, and his mother is of English, German, and Welsh descent.He is the younger brother of Ketan, a music producer in London.
Besides English, Jogia speaks some Gujarati and French.
According to The Start, Jogia was a student at Killarney Secondary School until age 17 when he left to pursue acting full-time, having already gained a number of small television credits. In an interview, he said that his parents withdrew him from middle school in favor of home schooling. He moved to Los Angeles, California on the trial-basis ultimatum that he would land a role within a six-month period – or return to schooling.
Jogia has cited British actor Tim Curry as one of his early acting inspirations, particularly Curry’s role as Long John Silver in the 1996 musical adventure comedy film, Muppet Treasure Island. British actor Sir Ben Kingsley is another of Jogia’s inspirations; the two would later appear in the 2015 miniseries Tut, and work together on the 2016 short film Of Dogs and Men.
Personal life
Jogia describes himself as “spiritual“, having spent months as a Buddhist and has roots in Hinduism. Jogia maintains that he has “looked at all kinds of ways of being, because I’m curious about what it takes to be human.” Jogia is also a dual citizen of Canada and the United Kingdom. Jogia has a number of tattoos; one on his chest, leg, upper leg, shoulder, back, and his lower arm. Jogia uses he/they pronouns.
Activism
Jogia co-founded the online PSA organization Straight But Not Narrow (SBNN) in 2011, with Heather Wilk and Andre Pochon in conjunction with the support of fellow actor, Josh Hutcherson. The non-profit organization aims towards changing the attitudes and viewpoints of heterosexuals about the LGBTQIA+ community. Jogia believed that:
“[t]here was no one making straight youth responsible for their apathy. When you see a bully beating up a kid and you stand idle, that’s as loud, or louder, than the actual oppression.”
In 2019, during an interview with Attitude, Jogia stated he does not feel comfortable labeling his sexuality.
