Girish Raghunath Karnad (; born 19 May 1938) is an Indian actor, film director, writer and playwright who predominantly works in
South Indian cinema. His rise as a playwright in 1960s, marked the coming of age of modern Indian playwriting in Kannada, just as
Badal Sarkar did in
Bengali,
Vijay Tendulkar in Marathi, and
Mohan Rakesh in Hindi. He is a recipient of the 1998
Jnanpith Award, a prestigious literary honour conferred in India.