Philip Karanja

Karanja was born on February 22, 1987 in Nairobi, Kenya as the second-born and only son in a family of five. He was raised in Dandora. Both of his parents were teachers, and his father died in 2002 while Karanja was in high school.^[7]

While still a film student in 2007, Karanja was cast in the Citizen TV series Tahidi High as Melvin. Within a year, he was promoted to production assistant and later to assistant director.^[10] He also worked as an assistant director on Mother-in-Law series on Citizen TV.^[11][12]

In 2011, he was cast as Mike in a short film Aphrodite. As a director with Protel Studios in 2014, his first projects were the television series Hapa Kule News and The Real Househelps of Kawangware on KTN.^[13] He directed 104 episodes of the latter before leaving to focus on Phill-It Productions.^[14][15] in 2017, he directed Maisha Magic Plus comedy series Hullabaloo Estate.

His next project as a director was Sue na Jonnie on Maisha Magic East and Showmax. It was the first production from Phil-It productions to be broadcaster by a mainstream channel.^[16] In 2021, he directed the feature film A Grand Little Lie and later the action film Click Click Bang.^[17][18][19]

Karanja returned to acting in 2024 as Mr. X in the television series Haki Mwitu, before resuming his role as director on the same show.^[20][21] He also directed Untying Kantai and worked as a producer on both Haki Mwitu and A Grand Little Lie.

Karanja met Catherine Kamau at the set of Mother-in-Law in 2012 and they began dating in 2013. They got married in 2017 in Nairobi.^[22][23] Karanja adopted Kamau's son, Leon Karanja and in December 2019 the couple welcomed a daughter, Karla Njeri.^[24]

On September 19, 2023, they both announced their divorce with a joint statement on their social media accounts.^[25][26]