Khandkar Mohammed Adil Hussain was born in 1963 in Assam. After initial adventures as an actor in film, television, theater and radio he joined the National School of Drama (NSD) in New Delhi, India, from where he graduated, specializing in acting in 1993. Immediately after that he received the Charles Wallace Trust Scholarship to study acting in England at the Drama Studio, London. Adil continued to act and to teach acting at different institutions in India and at the same time was undergoing intense training on the finer aspects of acting under the guidance of his teacher, Khalid Tyabji, who focused on the in-depth relationship between body, voice and emotion. In 1997, Adil was invited to act as the lead in the production 'Moeder India' by the Amsterdam based International Danstheater Company that toured for eighteen months.

In 1999, Adil acted as Othello in the acclaimed production of 'Othello: A play in Black and White' by the Indian Shakespeare Company, directed by Roysten Abel which was awarded the Edinburgh Fringe First. He tours with this production till date, which has traveled in the last decade to countries far and wide, including Zimbabwe, France, England, Egypt, Germany, Holland, Belgium and India.

Adil's acting credits for film and television include 'Jasoos Vijay' for BBC World Trust Service Production, A&B motion pictures film production of 'In Othello' where he plays the role of Othello, lead parts in films such as 'Iti Srikanto' (Dir. Anjan Das), and 'For Real' (Dir. Sona Jain) and in the play 'Orientations' (Dir Michael Walling) by Border Crossings Theater Company in London. He also plays a lead role in the Hindi Feature film, ‘Ishqiya’ (Dir. Abhishek Chaubey, Prod. Vishal Bharadwaj.)

Adil has in the past and continues to serve as Visiting faculty at the National School of Drama in New Delhi, Drama School in Amsterdam, Royal Conservatory of Performing Arts in The Hague, and Film and Television Institute of India in Pune. From 2004 to 2007 Adil served as the Artistic Director and Trainer of the Society for Artists and Performers in Hampi, Karnataka. The prime objective of this residency program was to discover a perpetual access to one's creative resevoir that lies deep within.