Who is Shelley Malil? Everything You Need to Know

Quick Facts

Also Known As: Shelley Mathew Malil

Age: 59 Years, 59 Year Old Males

Born Country: India

Actors Murderers

Height: 1.8 m

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Career

Shelley Malil was first enamoured with the acting profession as a child when he saw a performance by the actor, Bob Hope, on a neighbour’s TV set in his small fishing village in India. After moving to the U.S. in 1974, he would often win accolades for his performances in high school plays and district-level competitions. He performed in musicals at Dallas theatres after graduating from high school. Soon, he auditioned and got accepted to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, where he perfected his skills for two years.

But Hollywood beckoned and he landed in Los Angeles in 1994 with nothing more than a van, his mother’s roll-away mattress, and less than $1000 in his pocket. Soon after, he managed to land a small part on the TV series ‘The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.’ Thereafter, he continued to get a steady stream of work in films, commercials and TV shows, like ‘ER’, ‘Seinfeld’, ‘The West Wing’, ‘My Favorite Martian’, etc. throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. In 1997, he even won the ‘Los Angeles Ovation Award’ as the ‘Best Featured Actor’ for his comic relief role as ‘Bottom’ in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. He was nominated for the ‘Los Angeles Ovation Award’ again for his performance in the play ‘SubUrbia’.

Then, he did a Budweiser beer commercial that became an instant hit during the 2001 Super Bowl and even earned him a ‘Clio Award’. The commercial brought him fame and helped him bag one of the lead roles in the TV movie ‘Bad News Mr. Swanson’ in 2001. Thereafter, the offers continued to pour in for parts in movies and TV shows like ‘Collateral Damage’, ‘Sabrina The Teenage Witch’, ‘NYPD Blue’, ‘Scrubs’ etc.

In 2005, he landed the role of ‘Haziz’, a co-worker of the lead star, Steve Carell, in the movie ‘The 40-Year-Old Virgin’. He won many accolades for his brilliant acting in the movie, including a mention in the ‘Top 10 Overlooked Performances of 2005’ list released by the ‘Associated Press’. He went on to perform many more successful roles in movies and TV shows until 2008.

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Controversies & Scandals

On August 10, 2008, Shelley Malil was accused of stabbing his then girlfriend, Kendra Beebe, more than 20 times at their home in San Marcos, California, while her children were sleeping upstairs. Fuelled by anger, jealousy and alcohol, he slashed Beebe with a knife and a broken wine glass, and then tried to suffocate her with a pillow. He tried to escape, but was soon arrested at a train station. Beebe sustained many deep wounds, but survived the attack.

At his trial in 2010, he was convicted of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon and given a life imprisonment sentence with a prospect of parole after 14 years. During his incarceration, he attended AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) meetings, took up self-help courses and even got a correspondence college degree, all of which led to his first parole hearing in early 2018, almost 10 years since the attack. At the hearing, he admitted to his shameful crime, assured the parole panel that he was committed to his rehabilitation and did not want to victimize anyone ever again. The panel decided to grant him parole, but it was blocked after the public, media and the victim herself expressed their outrage.

Malil exhibited model behavior in prison and in late 2018, he was granted supervised parole for five years.

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Family & Personal Life

Shelley Matthew Malil was born on December 23, 1964, in a small fishing village in Kerala, India. He lived there for 10 years, after which he emigrated to the U.S. with his family. He has a close-knit family, including his parents, a sister, a niece and children, but not much is known about them.

In 2007, he began dating Kendra Beebe after meeting her on an online dating website, but their relationship had always been a rocky one.

Shelley Malil Biography