Gururaj Manepalli, 61 years old was born in Mysore. His father Late. M.Ranganath Rao was employed in Education Department in Karnataka Government. Mother is a Science Graduate.
Gururaj is a Bachelor of Architecture from Bangalore university and married to Chandrika Gururaj who is also an Architect.
They are blessed with two sons, both Mechanical engineers with MBA.
GururajalongwithChandrika runsanarchitecuralpracticeunderthenameofRAGA ARCHITECTS and have designed many prestigious projects for developers like Myhome Constructions, Engineers Syndicate, Modi Builders and Krishe Developers.
Gururaj has been interested in Acting since his Childhood and has participated in school plays. During his college days, he wrote directed and acted in many skits
and won prizes in inter college competitions. He also was active with Theatre groups like Torn Curtains in Hyderabad in late 90s, acted in plays like Lights Out.
In early 2003, a theater colleague introduced him to Sekar Kammula, who was then making Anand. Gururaj gave an audition and got selected to play a very pivotal role in Anand. This was followed by Happy Days and many more.
Gururaj, then went on to do charecter roles in a few hindi movies. Rudraksh directed by Mr.Mani Shankar, Iqbal and Dor for Mr. Nagesh Kukunoor.
Some of the known telugu movies he played charecter roles are Emayindi e Vela, Nayak, Galipatam, Napoleon, Pyaar me Padipoya, Evade Subramanyam, Nayak, 365 days, Jawan, Raccha, sainikudu, Awe, Gaddalakonda Ganesh and Chusi Chudangane. Pellichupulu brought him a wide recognition. He has so far acted in more than 35 films.
Gururaj also acted in a tele serial called Kids Zindabad which was aired on DD Metro. He has done a few Ad films and short films as well. Rao garu Abbayi, a short film produced Mr. Lakshmi Bhupala was very popular.
A couple of films and 2 web series are expected to release shortly.
Now, having reduced his Architecural practice substantially, Gururaj plans to follow his passion, acting full time. He is also interested in screenplay writing and has written a few for short films which he hopes to film in the future.
Gururaj speaks Kannada, Telugu, Hindi and English fluently. He is also an amateur singer who entertains his friends and family with Bollywood numbers.
He thinks that his best is yet to come.