Shelley Malil

Shelley Mathew Malil (born December 23, 1964) is an Indian-born American actor. Malil immigrated to the United States in 1974. He appeared in a number of television shows and films, including The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005).
In 2010, Malil was convicted of attempted premeditated murder and assault with a deadly weapon on a former girlfriend, and is currently serving a life term at Chuckawalla Valley State Prison in southern California.

Malil was born in Kerala, India. He started acting in high school, often earning awards in district competitions in Texas, to where his family immigrated in 1974. As a child, he had hoped to become a comedic actor like Bob Hope, whom he had first seen on a neighbor’s TV set, the only one in his fishing village in Kerala at the time.

Malil came to Hollywood in 1995, after a two-year stint at New York's American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He had supporting roles in The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005), Holes (2003), Collateral Damage (2002), Getting There (2002), Boys From Madrid (2000), My Favorite Martian (1999), Columbus Day (2008), and Just Can't Get Enough (2002). Malil had roles on television shows such as Scrubs, Reba, NYPD Blue, The West Wing, The Jamie Foxx Show, and ER .

He was selected as one of the "Top 10 Overlooked Performances of 2005" by the Associated Press for his performance in The 40-Year-Old Virgin. He is the recipient of a Clio Award (for the Budweiser beer commercials) and a Los Angeles Ovation Award as Best Featured Actor for his performance as Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream, and he was nominated for the Los Angeles Ovation Award for his performance in SubUrbia.

On August 11, 2008, Malil was arrested for attempted murder after stabbing his ex-girlfriend, Kendra Beebe, 23 times the preceding night in San Marcos, California. Malil, who lived in Sherman Oaks, a suburb of Los Angeles, was arrested at an Amtrak station as he got off a train in Oceanside, California. Beebe had survived the attack despite a severe cut to her chin, the collapse of both lungs, and the loss of about half the blood in her body.

Malil was tried for attempted murder with premeditation, causing great bodily injury; residential burglary; and use of a deadly weapon. On August 13, 2008, Malil pleaded 'not guilty' to attempted murder charges. On September 16, 2010, he was convicted of attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon, but was found not guilty of burglary. On December 16, 2010, in San Diego County Superior Court, he was sentenced to life imprisonment (with the possibility of parole after 12 years). He is currently incarcerated at Chuckawalla Valley State Prison in Riverside County, California.

Dramatizations of the event

In 2012, the events of the attack were chronicled on the Lifetime Movie Network show I Survived.... In 2013, the Investigation Discovery channel aired an episode of Dates From Hell entitled "Blood Red Carpet", which also chronicled the attack. Another dramatization appeared on an Investigation Discovery show, Who The (Bleep) Did I Marry, titled "Deadly Match".