Saeed Jaffrey is an acclaimed star of international standing with a long and illustrious career. He began acting in India, founding his own English theatre company in Delhi to perform drama classics from Shakespeare to Tennessee Williams. His 1967 recording of Kama Sutra was hailed as "one of the five best spoken word records ever" by Time Magazine.

His first film in India was the classic Satyajit Ray film The Chessplayers, opposite Richard Attenborough. In addition to the hundred Indian movies he has made since then, Jaffrey has an enviable number of top-notch international films to his credit. His first major international cinema role was as Billy Fish in John Huston's The Man Who Would Be King, but he is equally well remembered for his starring roles in Attenborough's Ghandi, David Lean's A Passage to India, John Masters' The Deceivers and Stephen Frears' My Beautiful Laundrette. He also worked with Paul Sarossy on the Canadian film Marsala, for which he was Genie-nominated.

Jaffrey has had prominent television roles in internationally praised dramas such as Jewel in the Crown, The Far Pavilions, Tandoori Nights, Staying On, Gangsters, Tales of the Unexpected and Rumpole of the Bailey. His long theatre career comprises classic productions of On a Foggy Day, The Mother Country, White Chameleon and My Fair Lady, to name but a handful.

In 1995, Jaffrey was awarded the OBE for his services to drama, the first Asian to be so honoured. He starred in most recent London Palladium production of The King and I, and in 2000 he published his autobiography - Saeed: An Actor's Journey.