Rajiv Surendra knows how to sport a six pack and work a pottery wheel
Most people know Rajiv Surendra as Kevin Gnapoor from 2004’s Mean Girls. The openly gay Canadian actor also famously campaigned for a lead role in 2012’s Life of Pi, and when he didn’t land the gig, quit acting and wrote a memoir about it called The Elephants in My Backyard.“When I got the email saying I didn’t get the part, I felt like that person just died instantly,” he told GQ in a recent interview. “It was traumatic.
I think I was in shock for a couple weeks. I felt dead inside for a long time.”Since walking away from acting almost 20 years ago, Surendra has gotten into arts and crafts and landed a partnership with the HGTV Handmade YouTube channel to create videos highlighting his personal collection of handmade pottery, chalk art, bookbinding, and paper marbling, as well as cooking tutorials.“I’ve been obsessed with making things since I was a little kid,” he told GQ. “Even when we were filming Mean Girls, I was working at this Pioneer Village spinning wool.”“Tina Fey found out and when she was pregnant with her first daughter, Alice, she asked for some wool and I sent her some yarn that I had spun,” he added. “She was learning how to knit.
