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Meet Dileep Rao, Up and Coming Movie Star

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Jasmine Cho Student Contributor, University of California - San Diego
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Jessica Brotman Student Contributor, University of California - San Diego
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at UCSD chapter and does not reflect the views of Her Campus.

Dileep Rao’s name may not ring a bell, but let me tell you- the majority of UCSD students have witnessed his acting in a major motion picture at least once! The American actor has only starred in three feature films so far, but they were all hits. He starred in Sam Raimi’s horror film Drag Me to Hell, which won the award for “Best Horror Film” at the 2009 Scream Awards and the 2010 Saturn Awards. Rao also starred in the highest-grossing film of all time, James Cameron’s Avatar. He played the role of Dr. Max Patel, a RDA xenobiologist. Rao worked alongside Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana. You can see Rao’s most recent work in the second highest-grossing film of all time, Christopher Nolan’s Inception. This successful actor worked with an amazing cast on this film, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Tom Hardy. Rao played the role of Yusuf, the chemist. 

What’s more? Dileep Rao attended the University of California, San Diego as an undergraduate and graduated in 1995 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Theatre! His success makes clear that here at UCSD we have bright futures ahead of us. You can catch Rao’s next performance in the upcoming sequel to Inception, Inception 2. 
Jasmine is currently a senior at the University of California, San Diego. She is pursuing a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and a minor in Education Studies. Jasmine is the Co-Campus Correspondent for Her Campus UCSD, along with the amazing Taylor Zepeda. Jasmine spends most of her time volunteering at low socioeconomic status elementary schools across the San Diego county and grading papers for classes she is a Teacher's Assistant in. Novel wise, she is an avid fan of Edith Wharton and the Lord of the Rings series. She also loves comedic shows like New Girl and The Big Bang Theory, but also enjoys thrillers like Criminal Minds. One of Jasmine's favorite hobbies is trying foods of different cultures; she loves visiting cultural nights and community festivals. Above all, Jasmine worships Beyonce (a.k.a. Beysus, Queen Bee, Baeyonce, etc). Her future aspiration in life is to become the Secretary of Education and have the Hov and B over for dinners.