Mahesh Jadu

Mahesh Jadu (born 26 October 1982) is an Australian actor. He is best known for the role of Dr. Doug Harris in the soap opera Neighbours and the role of Ahmad in Netflix original series Marco Polo. He also portrayed the supporting role of Shanmugum in the miniseries Better Man and Vilgefortz in The Witcher.

Early life Mahesh Jadu was born in Carlton, Victoria, Australia and was named Mahesh Khushidev Jadunundun. . His parents are from Mauritius and his Indo Mauritian ancestry originates from Bihar, Gorakhpur and Kashmir. He was raised in Canning Vale which is a suburb south of Perth in Western Australia , and spent his high school years in a cricket scholarship before he veered into film and television.

Career He started off as a composer for an Australian show, Byte Me. He auditioned for a small role in an Indian film, Sorry Bhai! and was subsequently cast. He was later cast in one of Australia's longest running soaps, Neighbours as Doug Harris. He played poker to cover rent and living expenses until he was called for an audition by the casting director, Lou Mitchell.

In 2011, he was cast in an Australian drama, Taj, which was presented at the 16th Busan International Film Festival.

He then worked on The Three Ages of Sasha. He got his big break when he was cast in Roland Joffé's periodic drama, Singularity, which was later renamed The Lovers. In 2015, he was cast in Netflix's Marco Polo as Ahmad Fanakati. and had a role in I, Frankenstein. In 2019 he played Vilgefortz of Roggeveen in the Netflix's TV series The Witcher.

He started a production company, Ākaasha Media, with producer Nikit Doshi and is slowly carving a path as a filmmaker also.

Filmography

Film

Year Title Role Notes 2008 Sorry Bhai! A Student 2008 Two Fists, One Heart Ringside Official 2011 Taj Vjay Male lead 2012 The Three Ages of Sasha Nasir Khan Male lead 2013 Magnetism Mark Short 2013 The Lovers The Assassin 2014 I, Frankenstein Ophir 2015 Judi Dench is Cool in Person Mahesh Short 2017 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales Spanish Soldier 2017 Three Summers Baktash 2019 Submit Tweet Critic Short 2020 Emerald Zal Short 2020 The Furnace Sadhu 2023 It Only Takes a Night Jeffrey D. Phillips 2025 The Ice Road 2: Road to the Sky Rudra Yash 2026 Tamerlane: Rise of the Last Conqueror Hussayn Honeymoon Eric Post-production

Television

Year Title Role Notes 2010–11 Neighbours Dr. Doug Harris Season 26–27 (recurring, 33 episodes) 2013 Better Man Shanmugum Miniseries (1 episode) 2014 Winners & Losers Evan Madawella Season 3 (guest, 2 episodes) 2014 Sam Fox: Extreme Adventures Raj Season 1 (guest, 1 episode) 2014 Marco Polo Ahmad Season 1–2 (main cast, 20 episodes) 2019– The Witcher Vilgefortz Season 1–3 (main cast, 11 episodes) 2024 Home and Away Nelson Giles Season 37 (recurring role)

Production credits

Year Title Notes 2005 Byte Me Composer (TV series) Topping Out Producer (in production) The Heretics Producer (pre-production) Kibo Producer (in development)