Luke Kenny

14 Jun, 1969 |

Actor

Biography

Luke Kenny is an Indian VJ, critic, director, producer and actor. Early Life Born in Calcutta on 14 June, Kenny moved to Bombay when he was 3 months old. His great-grandparents were Irish. They moved to Burma, where his grandfather was born. After World War II, his grandfather came to Delhi where he met his wife, Luke's grandmother, who was British. Luke's father was subsequently born in Delhi. The family then moved to Calcutta, where Luke's father met his wife, Luke's mother, whose parents were Italian. Luke's parents separated when he was young, and subsequently his grandparents and father moved to Bombay in the early 1970s. Luke's heritage is Irish-Italian-British by blood, yet Indian by birth and territory. Brought up by his grandparents and father, who were all musicians, his musical education began very young. As a child, living in a suburb of Bombay called Thane, he attended kindergarten and primary education at Bharat English High School. He later enrolled in St John The Baptist High School, where he finished his secondary education. After school, Kenny enrolled at Elphinstone College. but then he had to leave his college education midway due his earnestness of pursuing music and culture. Early Career Kenny started his career as a solo dancer in 1989. Spotted at one college dance competition, he joined Arshad Warsi's dance team as a chorus dancer and stayed as his associate choreographer from 1990 to 1992. In 1991, he dropped out of college to play the role of Jesus Christ in a musical interpretation of The Passion of the Christ. He was also a vocalist with a rock band called Greek. From 1993 to 1995, he worked as a DJ. In 1995, he became India's first Indian male VJ on Channel V. In 1997, Kenny performed a small role in Kaizad Gustad's movie, Bombay Boys, playing the leader of a rock band. In 1998, he became the head of music programming and artist relations for Channel V, a post he held until 2008. Later Career In early 2005 he returned to Channel V as the face of the show Luke's After Hours, which featured a selection of music videos specially chosen by him. Later in 2005, Kenny directed and produced his first feature film, 13th Floor, starring Purab Kohli and Sandhya Mridul. This was India's first digitally shot and released film. It was filmed over a course of six days. The film is 80 minutes in length and features two actors in an elevator. The film was released on 17 March 2006 by Kenny's own production company, Kenny Films Pvt Ltd. It was screened at Fame Cinemas and Fun Republic Theatres for a week. 13th Floor was also selected for the following festivals:     * Tromafling International Film Festival, Edinburgh 2005     * Temecula Valley International Film Festival, California 2005     * Sports Movies TV India International Film Festival, 2006     * International Film Festival of India, 2006     * Cape Town Bollywood Film Festival, South Africa 2007 In 2006, Kenny directed 3 music videos:     * Dil (Artist: Sidharth, Producer: Nisha Kreation)     * Humein Jeene Do (Artist: Tauseef & Cheryl, Producer: Film Foundation of India)     * Kyon; paanch tatva (Artist: Sidharth, Producer: Nisha Kreation) Kenny played the character of Rob, a keyboardist, in the Hindi film Rock On, directed by Abhishek Kapoor. He wrote a weekly music column in the Hindustan Times supplement HT Cafe, which appeared every Friday. It was called If I May Say So. He signed on as a contributing editor for Rolling Stone India, writing a column called LukeBox, and a live music column called Gig-A-Bites. In July 2008, Luke put together a band to pay tribute to Jim Morrison and the music of The Doors. The concert was held at the Blue Frog in Mumbai. On 31 October 2008, Kenny appeared in the Rock On For Humanity Concert, a charity event fronted by Farhan Akhtar, Ritesh Sidhwani and Arjun Rampal, benefiting the Nargis Dutt Memorial Charitable Trust. Kenny co-hosted the event with actress Sophie Choudry.