Rodney Warnakula
රොඩ්නි වර්ණකුල

Warnakula Patabandige Rodney Priyantha Perera, (born 24 April 1961 as රොඩ්නි වර්ණකුල), popularly known as Rodney Warnakula, is a Sri Lankan actor, comedian, singer, and dubbing artist.

Family

Warnakula was born on 24 April 1961 in Ja-Ela, as the son of Aloy Warnakula, an actor, and Annie Jayakodi, a housewife. He made his stage debut in Lucien Bulathsinhala’s 1981 drama Tharavo Igilethi. He is married to Erani Warnakula. They have two daughters and a son. His elder daughter Harshani Prasangika is a dancing teacher, second daughter is Samadhi Upekshika and youngest is the son, Eron Lakdeepa.

Career

In 1980, The Tower Foundation conducts a drama course with lecturers from Shanti Niketan, India by selecting 100 participants. Warnakula was selected for that group and successfully completed the course. Later one of the lecturers in the course, Anula Bulathsinhala invited him to participate for the stage play Tharavo Igilethi.

Warnakula has performed in over fifty stage plays, fifteen teleplays and twenty films, in addition to being a popular television actor. His most popular television acting came from Bodima and Nonavaruni Mahathvaruni. He also hosted Raigam Game Show several times which was telecasted on ITN. He and actor Rodney Fraser appeared together in the comedy series Two Rodneys, which was telecast on Sirasa TV. Warnakula has also enjoyed a lengthy singing career.

On 20 October 2011, Warnakula organized a musical night Sanda Eliyen Ada, to celebrate his 30 years of acting career. On that day, he launched his new music DVD and show was celebrated at the New Hall of Royal College, Colombo. On 18 May 2018, Warnakula has organized a singing concert named Three Faces along with Kumara Thirimadura and Saman Lenin to celebrate his 37 years of stage drama career. The show will be held at the BMICH.

In 2020 during CoVID-19 quarantine curfew period, his Facebook account has been hacked by a hacker. Then, his fellow Facebook friends and fans received messages by asking money by saying that he has a critical money emergency. However, Warnakula informed about the hacker and sent messages not to give money. Later Warnakula has made a new Facebook page. To celebrate his 40 years of drama career, he wrote his autobiography titled "Roddage Warna Kulaya".