Kishore Kumar G, widely recognized as Kishore, is a prominent Indian actor renowned for his work in the Kannada film industry. He completed his education at St Teresa's School, Sri Siddhartha High School, National College, and Bangalore University. Kumar's passion for acting was evident from an early age, and he pursued it through theatre in college, participating in notable plays such as Samrat Ashoka and Teregalu.
Following the completion of his master's degree, Kumar began working as a teacher of Kannada literature at Sharada College in Bengaluru, where he taught for two years before deciding to pursue a career in cinema.
He made his acting debut in Kanti (2004),a romance drama directed by S. Bharath, and his next notable appearance was in Sadhu Kokila's crime thriller Rakshasa (2005). Kumar received widespread acclaim for his performances in both movies. For his role in Rakshasa, he won the Karnataka State Film Award 2004-05 for Best Supporting Actor.
Since then, Kumar has acted in numerous films across the Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam film industries.
During the initial years of his acting career, he appeared in movies such as Akash (2005) and Kallarali Hoovagi (2006),where he portrayed the character of a tough elder brother of the leading ladies.
Around the same time, director Vetrimaaran approached him to work on his upcoming project Desiya Nedunchalai 47, which was ultimately shelved. However, Kumar got the opportunity to act in Polladhavan (2007),an action thriller that became a tremendous success at the box office, where he played the role of the villain Selvam. His portrayal of Selvam gave his career a significant boost, and he went on to win the Vijay Award 2007 for Best Villain for the role.
He continued to showcase his versatility through various roles onscreen. In Duniya (2007),he played the role of a serious cop. In Suseenthiran's sports drama Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu (2009),he appeared as a kabaddi coach.
Kumar garnered attention when he appeared in the lead role in Attahaasa (2013),a film based on the life of the forest brigand Veerappan and directed by A.M.R. Ramesh. Following this, he was seen in Haridas (2013),an action drama directed by Kumaravelan that received much critical acclaim. He appeared as a conscientious policeman and devoted father to an autistic child. In the same year, he portrayed the role of a forest guard in Jatta (2013),a thriller directed by Giriraj Bm. The film garnered critical acclaim from audiences and critics alike for the story as well as the portrayal of its characters.
In Rakshit Shetty's neo-noir gangster film Ulidavaru Kandanthe (2014),Kumar portrayed the character of Munna. He later appeared in the lead role in Kalki (2017),a short film directed by Dhilip Kumar. The film was released through Netflix.
After portraying brief roles in several other movies, Kumar played the character of an upright forest officer, Murali, in Kantara (2022),an action thriller directed by Rishab Shetty. The film was a massive commercial success and became the second highest-grossing Kannada movie of all time. Kumar gathered praise for his powerful performance in the film.
Kumar was also part of Mani Ratnam's epic historical action-adventure film Ponniyin Selvan: Part I (2022),in which he played the character of Ravidasan. The film received rave reviews and turned into a huge box-office success.
Over the years, Kumar has acted in several web series, including High Priestess (2019),The Family Man (2019),Addham (2020),She (2020),and Pettaikaali (2022).
