Vikram Chatwal (born November 1, 1971) is an American hotelier and actor. Early life and education Chatwal was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and his family moved to Montreal, Quebec, Canada in the 1970s and then to New York City in the 1980s, where his father invested in fine dining and hotels. Chatwal is of Indian Sikh heritage, growing up in a Sikh household and attended Sikh camp in upstate New York where he learned to recite prayers. Chatwal attended the United Nations International School in New York City as well as the Wharton School of Business where he graduated in 1993. Career Chatwal's father, Sant Chatwal, founded Hampshire Hotels and Resorts, as well as the Bombay Palace restaurant chain, but in 2014 had to resign as CEO due to an arrest by the FBI on illegal campaign contributions to which Sant Chatwal pleaded guilty in the US District Court, Eastern District of New York getting US$500,000 fine and 1,000 hours community service. After graduating from Wharton in 1993, Chatwal decided to try a career path different from the family business and began working for Morgan Stanley. He worked as an actor and movie producer, landing roles in films such as Zoolander and Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd. He was also a model, becoming the first Sikh model to appear in Vogue Magazine. Chatwal decided to join the family business in 1999 and opened the Time Hotel, a luxury hotel located in New York City. This was the first of six independent luxury hotels that he initially operated under his company Vikram Chatwal Hotels. In 2006 Chatwal opened the Night Hotel, located in New York's Times Square. In his early career, Chatwal was often referred to as a "Playboy" for his eccentric lifestyle and social network he hung out with. During that time, he was named one of the world's most eligible bachelors by a BBC television program the magazine Radar. Chatwal's business was affected by the real-estate crisis of the 1990s and in August 2010, it was reported Chatwal's flagship property the Dream Hotel in Manhattan was scheduled to enter foreclosure proceedings within 90 days if he did not make payment on a $99 million mortgage. Despite the economy, Chatwal expanded his hotel-management operations by opening additional hotels in New York City, Miami and overseas. The initial expansion came in 2010 with the opening of the Chatwal Hotel, a $100