Sudeepa is an Indian actor, director, producer, screenwriter, and television presenter who primarily works in the Kannada film industry, in addition to having worked in Hindi, Telugu and Tamil films. He is popularly known as Kiccha Sudeepa. Sudeep began his acting career with supporting roles in Thayavva (1997), and Prathyartha (1999), before making his breakthrough with a leading role in the romance Sparsha (2000). He established himself in the criticially acclaimed Huchcha (2001), which his performance in earned him the nickname "Kiccha Sudeepa" by his fans. He has gone onto star in several commercially successful films such as Nandhi (2002), Kiccha (2003), Swathi Muthu (2003), My Autograph (2006), No 73, Shanthi Nivasa (2007), Mussanjemaatu (2008), Veera Madakari (2009), Just Maath Maathalli (2010), Rakta Charitra (2010), Vishnuvardhana (2011), Kempe Gowda (2011), Eega (2012), Maanikya (2014), Ranna (2015), Kotigobba 2 (2016), Hebbuli (2017), The Villain (2018), Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy (2019), Pailwaan (2019), and Vikrant Rona (2022).