Page 541 - Guildhall Coverage Book 2020-21

Patel’s parents, who are pharmacists, weren’t big theatre-goers, and it was
only when he attended his secondary school – City of London, which counts

Daniel Radcliffe among its alumni – that he first saw “someone like me
treading the boards” when his classmate Krishnan was cast in a play.

He went on to read English literature at Warwick University, but spent all his

time rehearsing for student plays rather than revising. After a brief dalliance
with arts journalism – he reviewed Scissor Sisters in Trafalgar Square for
the Financial Times – he attended Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
From there, he went on to star in the colonial-era drama Indian Summers,
Mindy Kaling’s Four Weddings and a Funeral remake and most recently the
heart-wrenching play-film hybrid Good Grief opposite Fleabag’s Sian
Clifford.

‘It was surreal’: Nikesh Patel in Good Grief
(Platform Presents)

Patel’s performance in the latter as Adam, a man who loses his girlfriend to
cancer, is penetrating. He is brittle and all at sea. He and Clifford rehearsed
for two weeks on Zoom, then shot the “plilm” over two days. “It was a pretty