Inside Grantchester's Alphy star Rishi Nair's life from early career side hustle to long-term romance
Grantchester will begin a new chapter with actor Rishi Nair joining the hit ITV period drama as vicar Alphy Kotteram - but what is there to know about the star?
Season nine made its debut earlier this month with fans saying a tearful goodbye to actor Tom Brittney as the beloved vicar Will Davenport after a six-year stint.
Episode three, which airs on Wednesday, January 22, at 9pm on ITV and ITVX, will see Will’s replacement vicar Alphy Kotteram (played by Rishi Nair) introduced for the first time.
Ahead of his big debut, with Nair also celebrating his 34th birthday today, here’s everything there is to know about Grantchester’s latest newcomer.
Relationship with his mum
Actor Nair was born in 1991 in Ealing and while he has remained very private in regards to his family, he has been open with how close he is to his mum.
She accompanied her son as his “plus one” to the National Diversity Awards 2018 with him attributing his achievements to her.
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Sharing a picture of them together on the red carpet, Nair wrote: “Everything that I am today I owe to this woman.
“She's been so supportive of me in everything that I have ever chosen to do and has always been my number one fan!
“I felt immensely proud being able to take her to an event like this... My mum and I have both come a long way to be sitting in a grand cathedral at an awards ceremony surrounded by such inspirational people.
“Although, don't be fooled by her innocent looks.. This same woman kept me out clubbing till 3am that night!”
Side hustle
While Nair now stars in the hit ITV drama Grantchester, it hasn’t always been easy working as a full-time actor and so needs some extra work on the side to help him financially.
He shared with PBS: “When you’re first starting off as an actor, you’re not working so often, so my side hustle was coaching football alongside my acting.”
The publication reported that he still plays football three times a week with him labelling it as a “big part of my life”.
“I’m a big Man U [Manchester United] fan.
“We haven’t said who Alphy supports yet, but I’m going to do everything I can to try and get him to be a Man U fan as well!”
Football also played a part in Nair’s “chemistry read” screen test with actor Robson Green when he was auditioning for the role of Alphy.
When the two co-stars met, Green gave Nair a hug with the latter explaining: “Immediately, I just felt so calm. My nerves had gone.
“ We sat down and had a conversation about football—nothing to do with acting or the scenes—we were just chatting for 10 minutes.
“It was such a lovely moment for me; it made me feel so comfortable and it was a sign of how things were going to progress for the rest of the season, not just with Robson, but the rest of the cast.”
Hollyoaks
Over the years, Nair has had minor roles in various shows and films including I’m Still Here, Silent Witness, The Forbidden Note and The Duchess.
But it was in 2017 that he landed the part of lawyer Sami Maalike in Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks where he remained for four years until his exit.
While he explicitly didn’t share the reason for his departure, Nair talked of it being the right "time” to go, presumably so he can move onto other projects but has hinted he may return in the future.
Rishi said: "I will really miss everyone on the show. It's like a big family so will definitely miss working with them.
“I don’t want to say this is goodbye forever because we never know what the future might hold but I feel like he’s left at a good time.
"We’ve seen him go full circle. He came to the village looking for revenge and was a bit of a villain at the beginning and we’ve kind of seen the real Sami and his soft side has come through.”
Romance
Last year, Nair had announced his engagement to his long-term girlfriend Natali with the star resharing photos posted by guests of them at their engagement party.
His Hollyoaks co-stars were in attendance including actress Haiesha Mistry who took to Instagram to post: "And just like that the Maaliks are back together! Such a heartwarming night celebrating love."
It isn’t known how long Nair and Natali have been together for but she has appeared numerous times on his Instagram page over the years with one of the earliest posts dating back to 2015.
Grantchester season nine continues every Wednesday at 9pm on ITV and ITVX.