Mathar Ramakrishnan Gopakumar (born 24 September 1951) is an Indian film, television and theatre artist from Kerala.

In his career spanning over four decades, Gopakumar has acted in a wide variety of roles and has worked in both art house and mainstream films.

M. R. Gopakumar started his acting career as an amateur theatre actor in 1974 in G. Sankara Pillai's drama Rakshapurushan.

Towards the late 1970s, a few young aspiring artists in Thiruvananthapuram came together to form an amateur drama troupe named Natyagruham.

Adoor Gopalakrishnan called Gopakumar again in 1993, this time to play the title role in Vidheyan, an adaptation of the novel Bhaskara Pattelarum Ente Jeevithavum by Paul Zacharia.

In 1996, when Hollywood director Steven Spielberg was looking for an Indian actor to play a role in The Lost World: Jurassic Park, his casting agents in India were directed towards M. R. Gopakumar by Adoor Gopalakrishnan himself.

After multiple rounds of discussions and reviews of acting clips, Gopakumar was selected to play the role of the Indian character.

The news attracted national attention almost immediately, as Gopakumar was set to become the first Indian actor to act in a Steven Spielberg film.

However, Gopakumar was unable to join the production unit in Los Angeles as his work permit could not be processed within time.