Joju George

The part that changed things for Joju George was the title role of a retired police officer in M. Padmakumar's Joseph (2018), which he also produced. The film got a special mention at the 66th National Film Awards, and Joseph, along with Chola, won him the state award for Best Character Actor. Getting there took time. From Mala in Thrissur district, and a student of Christ College, Irinjalakuda, he entered films in 1995 as a junior artist in Mazhavilkoodaram, began assisting directors in 1997 and spent more than a decade in small parts. A comic turn as a police commissioner in Hotel California (2013) was his first full-length character role, and in 2015 he received a Kerala State Film Award special mention for supporting work that included Oru Second Class Yathra and Lukka Chuppi. The Kerala State Film Award for Best Actor followed, for Nayattu, Madhuram and Freedom Fight, and Jagame Thandhiram took him into Tamil; he has acted in Telugu too, and writes and sings as a playback singer. His banner Appu Pathu Pappu Production has backed titles such as Charlie and Porinju Mariam Jose. He directed Pani (2024), then co-starred with Urvashi in the 2026 thriller Aasha, now streaming on ZEE5. He plays Reji in Aja Sundari. Paripadi, his second film as director, which he writes and leads, is slated for December 2026 and marks Yuvan Shankar Raja's Malayalam film debut.