Rakesh Madhava was one of the foremost employees at Theranos. But seeing his dear colleague fired and also dissatisfied with the track the company was heading to, Rakesh left Theranos without a second thought.
Get to know him better as this Rakesh Madhava Bio proceeds.
Who Plays Rakesh Madhava In The Dropout?
Rakesh Madhava is portrayed by Utkarsh Ambudkar whom you might remember from his TV roles as “Rishi Lahiri” from The Mindy Project and “Pizza” from The Muppets.
Well, if that doesn’t ring a bell, you might have seen Utkarsh over movies and TV shows like Ghosts (2022), Never Have I Ever (2021), Mulan (2020), Brockmire (2018), White Famous (2017), Mary + Jane (2016), Pitch Perfect (2012), and many more.
This American actor was born on December 8, 1983, and has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from New York University’s famed Tisch School of the Arts. Besides acting, Utkarsh is also a brilliant rapper and beatboxer.
Also, he briefly dated the actress, Sora Connor, after meeting her on Pitch Perfect in 2013.
Rakesh Madhava At Theranos
Rakesh Madhava was hired by Elizabeth Holmes right after she started Theranos and developed the concept of a simplified blood-testing device. Also, joining alongside him was his dear colleague/engineer Edmond Ku.
The two then worked hand-in-hand to develop the prototype that would take years for being perfect. But Elizabeth wanted results fast! So, she hired a different engineer, Brendan Morris, to head his own competing engineering team.
Being pitted against another team, Rakesh and Edmond allegedly then fell behind in progress. Thus, Elizabeth fired Edmond, and Rakesh was put to Brendan’s team. However, the device created by Brendan’s teams dubbed “The Edison,” hardly produced accurate test results.
Ultimately, Rakesh had enough of Elizabeth’s methods and quit the company.
After Rakesh’s departure, the company would then go on to the market the product despite the faulty results. Then in 2018, the company would shut down after its fraudulent practices comes to light.
Is Rakesh Madhava A Real Person?
It is highly unlikely that the character Rakesh Madhava is real. Although a person named Rakesh Madhava exists in reality, the show’s character isn’t solely based on him. Reportedly, the character “Rakesh” on The Dropout is inspired by Shaunak Roy, who was bolstered up a bit with the real-life stories of several other employees.
According to Shaunak, they faked results for investor presentations, in case the machine didn’t work. Though he didn’t reveal whether that was the case in Switzerland, the device did malfunction upon arriving in the country and the employees stayed up all night trying to fix it.
As seen on the show, when the team couldn’t fix it, another team in California sent over fake results for the demonstration for Novartis.
Also, when further prospective investors came by later, they were all taken to see Shaunak. He would then prick his finger, put a few drops of blood over the cartridge, and present a positive result.
Naive investors, who didn’t really grasp the physics or chemistries at play would then be happy with the final result. And that was how the company grew.
Also, many employees of Theranos were ignorant about the fraudulence that was going on. But its chief financial officer, Henry Mosley, who joined in March 2006, had a sharp eye. He questioned Shaunak and got him to confess everything. Unfortunately, when he confronted Elizabeth about it, he was fired.
Trivia: For those of you still searching for real Rakesh. LinkedIn @rakeshmadhava and Twitter @rakeshmad isn’t the one you’re looking for.
Who Is Shaunak Roy?
Shaunak Roy was the foremost employee of Theranos. Some sites even labeled him to be the co-founder of the company.
He started his career as an engineering intern working for UOP in 1999. In May 2004, he then joined a Private medical device startup as a senior development scientist — responsible for setting up the lab and purchasing all necessary equipment, instruments, reagents, and materials for experiments there.
In Feb 2008, Shaunak then took the job of a senior process engineer at Complete Genomic Inc and went on to work there for 4 and a half years. Then in June 2012, he joined GeneWeave Biosciences as an engineering manager and worked there for 3 years and 4 months.
Also, from Sept 2015 to June 2016, he was with InSilixaInSilixa working as their Sr. engineering manager.
Where Is Rakesh Madhava [Shaunak Roy] Now?
Rakesh Madhava, allegedly Shaunak Roy, is now (as of 2022) working as the vice president of research and development at Visby Medical. He resides in Sunnyvale, California with his wife of over 14 years Sangeeta Agarawal.
His wife, Sangeeta is an Arizona State University engineering graduate who went on to work as a “Software engineer/System Architecture Design” at Google, Oncologist at Stanford Health Care, and Cancer nurse at UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Health.
Last we checked, Sangeeta was employed at Helpsy Clinic.
Related FAQs
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Are Rakesh Madhava [Shaunak Roy] And Elizabeth Holmes On Speaking Terms?
It is unclear if Rakesh Madhava, allegedly Shaunak Roy, and Elizabeth Holmes are on speaking terms or not.
But considering Rakesh wants to erase his history with Theranos, the two might not be in contact with each other.
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Did Rakesh Madhava [Shaunak Roy] Attend Stanford University?
Yes, Rakesh Madhava, allegedly Shaunak Roy, attended Stanford University for his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from 1999 to 2004.
Also, it was thanks to him letting Elizabeth see his notes, Elizabeth was able to persuade their professor Channing Robertson into joining her.
