Vijay (born Joseph Vijay Chandrasekhar) is an Indian actor, playback singer and producer, who works in the Tamil film industry. He started his career as a child actor in the movie Vetri.

Vijay is been fondly called as IlayaThalapathy by his fans. Vijay went on to study visual communications at Loyola College, Chennai. He has been co-starred with leading actors and other actors in his earlier carreer. He has been regognized as a predominant star since the movie Poove Unakkaga, which is also a first commercial success movie for him.

Vijay was awarded with Kalaimamani and Honorary Doctorate along with other national and filmfare awards. He started Makkal Iyakkam in 2009, a social welfare organization with the help of his fans and volunteers to help the poor.