He has won the IIFA Fresh Face Award (2008). He started his career as a male lead with a rather unconventional film 'Johnny Gaddaar' (2007) which failed to perform well at the box office but his acting skills were appreciated and critically acclaimed. We're talking about none other than Neil Nitin Mukesh who celebrates his birthday today.

He is the grandson of legendary singer Mukesh and son of Nitin Mukesh. He was named Neil, by Lata Mangeshkar after the astronaut Neil Armstrong as his father was a huge fan of the latter.

The actor with dashing looks and golden curly hair started off his career as a child artist in 1988 with the films 'Vijay' and 'Jaisi Karni Waisi Bharni'. After his impressive debut, he was casted by Kabir Khan for his next, 'New York' opposite Katrina Kaif which did perform well.

Neil was in a relationship with designer Priyanka Bhatia for a long time until they called it off a year back. This came out as a shock because Neil earlier announced that they were as good as married.

Born and brought up in Mumbai, he completed his education from HR College with a bachelor's degree in Communications. Neil has been very focused about his career right from the beginning. He joined Anupam Kher's four months acting workshop in his vacations. While still in college, he also assisted Aditya Chopra in his film, 'Mujhse Dosti Karoge'.

The film graph of the actor has not been very stable. He has come across many ups and downs since its first release. The new talent in the film industry has two movies in its post production stage which are scheduled to release in February 2013.

While the actor still continues climbing the ladder of success, we wish the handsome hunk a very Happy Birthday and loads of luck for his upcoming releases.