Viveka M Rao has been an active theatre practitioner for the past 9 years. He received his elementary education in theatre from Hanumantanagara Bimba. He directed short plays in his school as a teenager. He has participated in the lighting workshop organised by Team Sanchaya. He has also completed his 3-month certification program - 'Vyoma Actors Studio'- in acting for stage and screen.
He has worked with several amateur theatre teams in Bengaluru over the last 7 years including YouAndMe Theatre, Nataranga, Yuvashree Bengaluru. Sarvam Theatre and Trinetra Theatre. He has acted in multiple full-length productions and short plays. He has written and co-directed 'Kalaavida' - a dance theatre production in 2017 and 'Smruthi' - A full-length Kannada play in 2018. He is also a practitioner of Yakshagana - a Coastal art form of Karnataka. Having worked extensively with YouAndMe theatre as a content creator, he has facilitated several applied theatre workshops for reputed institutions including IIMB, Mercedes Benz, Nutanix, etc. He takes a keen interest in children's theatre. Apart from conducting workshops for children, he has also written and directed 2 short plays for children.
He is the recipient of the Best Actor award at the 2021 Bengaluru short play festival. He is currently working as a theatre instructor at a school and is in preparation to stage his first independent theatrical production.