Since childhood, Nikhil has been lauded for his skills as an actor and a storyteller. Although he aspired to pursue his acting dreams upon graduation from Mission San Jose High School in Fremont, he was steered by his family into a more pragmatic path – Engineering.  He thus received his Bachelors in Computer Science and Engineering from UC San Diego, and worked for a couple of years in the hi-tech industry.

Throughout his technical education and work experience, however, he continued, as much as the hectic hi-tech life would permit him, writing scripts and taking acting classes. He undertook acting classes and training programs at UCSD, A.C.T., and San Jose Repertory Theatre, among others. His acting skills earned him a 1 st Runner-up title at the Mr. India-California competition in 1999, and a place as one of the top five finalists at the Mr. India-America competition in 2004.

When the summer of 2005 rolled around, he decided it was time to finally start living his true path. So saying, he quit his software job and attended the summer filmmaking intensive at Columbia University, where he wrote and directed his first short film, “Blind”. The film, about an innocent boy who starts treating the Jesus statue his mother gave him as a real person, stars Trevor Heins, who is best known for playing Dennis Leary's son on the hit show, “Rescue Me”.