Neil Nitin Mukesh hails from a family of singers. His grandfather was the legendary playback singer Mukesh Chandra Mathur, and his father is Nitin Mukesh.


Neil, however, decided to plunge headlong into acting. In doing so, he fulfilled his grandfather's desire to become an actor. Mukesh was brought to Mumbai by the then famous character actor Motlilal, a distant relative and ended up as a playback singer. But he always harboured dreams of becoming an actor and did act in two films, Mashuqa and 'Anuraag' besides doing a cameo in Aag.


Taking his grandfather's dream of becoming an actor forward, Neil made an impressive debut in Johnny Gaddaar (2007), a crime thriller directed Sriram Raghavan, which had him playing a rather unconventional hero. Before making his acting debut, Neil served as an assistant to Aditya Chopra in Mujhse Dosti Karoge. Most are unaware that as a kid he'd faced the sharp eye of the camera, working as a child actor in Yash Chopra's Vijay.


After his impressive debut, Neil was next seen in Kabir Khan's New York and Madhur Bhandarkar's Jail.


Next up was Yash Raj's Lafangey Parindey, directed by Pradeep Sarkar. The film did not do well at the box-office. He was next seen in Vishal Bhardwaj’s 7 Khoon Maaf, where he played one of Priyanka Chopra’s 7 husbands. In 2011, he was seen in Players, the remake of The Italian Job. The film failed to do well at the box-office.

In 2013, he acted in Bejoy Nambiar’s David, which opened to mixed responses. His latest release is 3G, opposite Sonal Chauhan.