Karan Brar is an American actor best known for his coming-of-age roles in a number of film and television roles during the 2010s.
Brar’s career began at age 11 when he played Chirag Gupta in the film adaptation of the novel Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2010), a role he went on to reprise in two subsequent films in the franchise. He also made a name for himself playing Ravi Ross in the Disney series Jessie (2011–2015) and its spin-off show Bunk’d (2015–). Brar has appeared in a several dozen films and series, including Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018), The F**k-It List (2020), Stargirl (2020), and Adam Sandler’s Hubie Halloween (2020). He has also acted in commercials, including for the Dalai Lama’s “Seeds of Compassion” campaign, and has had variety of voice acting roles, including on a 2023 episode of Family Guy (1999–).
In a 2023 essay for Teen Vogue, Brar came out as bisexual and opened up about the pressures of being a child star, maintaining a public and private life, and living up to the expectations of his immigrant parents. He shared his experience with grief, alcoholism, internalized homophobia, depression, and even suicidal thoughts. Brar revealed that he had been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) around 2020 but has since recovered and is in a much better place now.
“I spent a lot of time in my underwear, on the hardwood floor, swiping through men and women on a dating app.” He went on to describe the moment he came out to his best friends:
The moment the words left my mouth, I regretted it. I could barely see straight, but I ended up trying to do some damage control anyway. The best thing I could think of came stumbling out of my mouth:
‘If you guys want me to move out I can. Just give me two weeks to figure it ou—’
They interrupted me by hugging me from behind. Again, I told them I should move out. They told me I was being stupid. I told them I’d cover for them if people asked why we didn’t live together anymore. They said to shut the fuck up. I told them that they probably hated me. They said my bisexuality changed nothing for them.