Mikhail Yawalkar is an actor who works predominantly in the Hindi film industry. He was born in Mumbai, India. His father, late Rajan Yawalkar, was a third generation sculptor. Hailing from a family of artists, he was always inclined towards the arts. He modelled as a child for several brands including Inter Shoppe and also worked on a television show titled Bible Ki Kahaniyan as a child actor in 1993. He was educated at The Cathedral & John Connon School, Mumbai followed by a five year stint in the United States of America where he obtained an Associates Degree in Culinary Arts and a Bachelors Degree in Hospitality Management. He followed this up with a job as Assistant Food & Beverage Manager at The Peninsula, one of the most prestigious hotels in New York City. Upon his return, he assisted his father at the art studio only to return to his passion which was to be an actor. He enrolled himself into the Barry John Acting studio for a diploma course following which he acted in, co-directed and produced a few award winning short films. He then began his journey of auditioning and finally bagged his first film, Mardaani (2014), produced by Yashraj films and directed by Pradeep Sarkar. He plays inspector Balwinder Singh Sodhi. He credits Mr. Aditya Chopra for giving him his break. He has then gone on to work with renowned directors including Prakash Jha, Habib Faisal, Ali Abbas Zafar, Sooni Taraporevala, as well as debutante directors Sagar Ambre and Pushkar Ojha in his latest film, Yodha, produced by Dharma Productions.