Abul Hayat

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Abul Hayat (born 7 September 1944) is a Bangladeshi actor, writer, civil engineer and director. He has acted in more than 1,000 television dramas and in films. He won the Bangladesh National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor for Daruchini Dwip (2007) and received the Ekushey Padak for acting in 2015, one of the country’s highest honors. He also portrayed the Misir Ali character in the television film Onno Bhuboner Cheleta.

Hayat studied civil engineering at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). His acting career began on television with Oedipus in 1969, and his first film was Titash Ekti Nadir Naam (1973). He founded the Nagorik Natya Sampradaya theatre group and has written many books, with his first, Trishnar Shanti, published in 1989; by 2015 he had written 28 books. In cinema, he played Shakib Khan’s father in Ananta Bhalobasha (1999).

Born in Murshidabad, then part of British India, Hayat’s family later moved to Chittagong, East Pakistan. He worked as an executive engineer for Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority, spent several years in Libya (1978–1981), then returned to Bangladesh and left government service for private work.

Hayat married Shirin Hayat in 1970. They have two daughters, Bipasha and Natasha, who are actresses; their husbands Tauquir Ahmed and Shahed Sharif Khan are also actors.