Actor, playwright, editor, art-critic. Founder in postcolonial India's literary history, specifically for Indian writing in English.

Subtle, restrained and well crafted diction, dealing with common and mundane themes in a manner that manifests both cognitive profundity, as well as an unsentimental, realistic sensibility, that has been influential on the course of succeeding Indian English poetry. Ezekiel enriched and established Indian English language poetry through his modernist innovations and techniques, which enlarged Indian English literature, moving it beyond purely spiritual and orientalist themes, to include a wider range of concerns and interests, including mundane familial events, individual angst and skeptical societal introspection.

Nissim Ezekiel was born in Bombay in an Indian jewish family. His parents were both educators. His father was a professor of botany and zoology and served as a principal in several colleges. His mother was the principal of a school she had started. 

He was a distinguished scholar. He did his schooling in the missionary schools and joined the Wilson College, Bombay where he held an excellent academic record.

While he was studying for his M.A. He taught part-time at the Hansraj Morarji Public School, Bombay. He stood first in Bombay University in his M.A. Examination in English Literature, and was awarded the R.K. Lagu Scholarship. 

From 1947-1948 he taught English at the Khalsa College in Bombay.

In 1948 he went to London for three and a half years and  there immersed himself in the world of theatre, cinema and art. He also studied Philosophy at Birbeck College. 

His first book of poems A Time to Change was published in London in 1952, the year he left England, working his way home as a deck hand on a cargo ship.

After returning from England he joined the editorial staff of the Illustrated Weekly of India for about two years. He also broadcast regularly from the All India Radio on Art and Literature for about ten years from 1952-1962.he co-founded the literary monthly Imprint, in 1961. He became art critic of the Times of India (1964-66) and edited Poetry India (1966-67). From 1961 to 1972, he headed the English department of Mithibai College, Mumbai. 

He had married in November 1952 and in 1953 he had published his second book of poems Sixty Poems. Throughout his career, Ezekiel continued to publish as a poet, bringing out many collections and some plays. He also translated poetry from Marathi in 1976, and coedited a fiction and poetry anthology, Another India (1990). 

Soft spoken and gentle he was always helpful to fellow poets and writers. He acted as a mentor to younger poets, such as Dom Moraes, Adil Jussawalla and Gieve Patel.

Ezekiel received the Sahitya Akademi cultural award in 1983 and the Padma-Shri, India`s highest civilian honour, in 1988

For the last years of his life he suffered from Alzheimers. Nissim Ezekiel passed away in Jannuary 2004 at the age of 79.