Showtrial star Adeel Akhtar's private life away from the cameras: from director wife to London home
Adeel Akhtar plays defence lawyer Sam Malik in the second season of the hit BBC drama, Showtrial, which returns on Sunday night.
Featuring an all-new cast, the series sees a high-profile climate activist struck down in a violent hit-and-run and uses his dying moments to identify his killer: a serving policeman.
While Adeel is a familiar face on our screens thanks to his roles in Sherwood and Murdered by My Father, both of which won him a TV BAFTA, how much do you know about his life away from the cameras? Keep reading for all we know about his wife and home life here…
Adeel Akhtar's childhood
Adeel was born in London to a Pakistani father and Kenyan mother, who met at an airport when the former was an immigration officer and the latter worked for Pakistan International Airlines.
Adeel, who moved from Hounslow to a Buckinghamshire village when he was young, opened up about his parents, who raised him as a practising Muslim, in an interview last year.
"You look to your parents and your culture to understand more about the path you want to take," he told the Big Issue. "My parents were immigrants and had to battle against a lot and they understood their path to get to a situation where they could afford to give us a really good life. So that, for them, was a template of how I should live. In terms of who I would eventually end up with, there were these sort of arranged/non-arranged-y sort of situations with marriages within our culture at the time. It was all up in the air, but you were gently guided to follow a particular path.
"And sometimes not gently guided, sometimes actually told what you were going to be doing," said 44-year-old, who dropped out of studying law at university to become an actor. He later added that "going to drama school felt like running away and joining the circus".
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Adeel Akhtar's wife and family
When he's not filming his latest TV drama, Adeel lives in south London with his wife, documentary director Alexis Burke, whose credits include 10,000 BC and
The couple live in a Victorian conversion flat they transformed from a "rundown and pretty squalid place" into a "warm and colourful home", according to Anna & Tam, who interviewed Alexis in 2016.
Speaking about how his wife impacted his perspective on life, Adeel told Big Issue: "Sometimes it takes somebody else to show you an understanding of who you are or your place in the world. When I met my wife, it catalysed something in me. The idea is to dedicate yourself fully to something and be completely present to it, otherwise you’re robbing yourself of an opportunity.
"When Lex and I got together, that's what I felt. Love and relationships work the same way as my love for acting or for a place – it's about remaining curious. As long as you remain inquisitive, this thing will grow around you in a way which is completely unexpected."
The couple share two sons, Arlo and Ezra.
Opening up about parenthood earlier this year, Adeel said having children made him "more appreciative of life".
"Parenthood makes things feel more vital," he told The Guardian. "Since having our two sons, I'm much more appreciative of life. You feel grateful for even the smallest things. It's a gift."
