Kahlil Joseph (pronounced "Kha-leel") is an American film, television and stage actor and teacher of performing arts. He has worked extensively in the United States and India. Joseph is based in Los Angeles. Early life Joseph was born in New Delhi, India, but moved shortly after to Sydney, Australia with his parents for five years. While in Sydney, Joseph did his first play, acting as Noah in a production of "Noah's Ark". That created the love for performing in him. From a young age, Joseph constantly displayed a strong interest in entertaining audiences with various types of performances. Never one to be satisfied with learning one thing, he always tried to learn as many new things as he could. Joseph had an extremely keen ear for sound since childhood, and would continually mimic everyone and everything he could. Joseph was constantly encouraged to read books that were advanced for his age. His parents introduced him to various authors, to build his interests and knowledge of other cultures and people. In 1983, Joseph moved back to New Delhi with his parents and attended St. Columba's School, Delhi. By the age of 9, trained extensively in voice and diction by his father, Joseph started consistently winning inter-school declamation and debate championships, which continued till the time he was 17. Simultaneously, at the age of 7, Joseph began a lifelong practice of another discipline that has had a profound effect on his work and person to this day – the martial arts. When Joseph watched the legendary Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon, he was inspired immediately by the way Lee so expressed himself through his physicality and movement. Starting with Shotokan Karate, Joseph branched into Tae Kwon Do, Hung Gar Kung Fu, and boxing. He competed on a semi-contact and full-contact amateur level. Joseph earned his first Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Ramjas College, University of Delhi, India. During his studies, he was the lead singer for various heavy metal and hard rock bands in New Delhi. He learned and developed a high respect during this time for such a type of singer, whom he believes needs even more vocal and physical strength and resilience than a speaker or singer of another genre. Career Acting career (India) Following college, Joseph was immediately cast as Jean Valjean in a Delhi production of the acclaimed Broadway musical Les Misérables in 1998, which