Padma Lakshmi is an actress, model, author and television host. She is also a producer and food expert and is best known as the co-host of Bravo’s Emmy Award-winning reality series Top Chef. She is also the creator and executive producer of Hulu’s critically acclaimed show Taste the Nation.
Her net worth is estimated at $30 million, and she is the co-founder of a nonprofit organization that aims to raise awareness about the autoimmune disease endometriosis. She is also a strong advocate for women’s rights and works as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Development Programme.
She is a member of the American Civil Liberties Union, and she has served on the Board of Directors for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. She is an active supporter of the Endometriosis Foundation of America and has been a global ambassador for Keep a Child Alive since 2007.
Lakshmi was born in Chennai, India, on September 1, 1970. Her parents divorced when she was two years old and she moved to the United States with her mother Vijaya. In the United States, she grew up in New York and Los Angeles.
After a successful modeling career, she went on to become an actress and author. She has written the popular cookbook Easy Exotic, which won the Best First Book award at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards 1999. She has also written the encyclopedia The Encyclopedia of Spices & Herbs and a memoir, Love, Loss and What We Ate.
She has a seven inch scar on her right arm from a car accident as a child, and she is the co-founder of an NGO that focuses on women’s health. She is also an advocate for immigrants’ and women’s rights.
A former model and actress, Lakshmi has appeared in movies such as Star Trek: Enterprise (2001), Glitter (2001) and Sharpe (1993). Her role as Sean Bean’s nemesis Madhuvanthi in Star Trek: Enterprise was the most high-profile.
In addition to her acting, Lakshmi is a chef and has her own culinary products line called Padma’s Easy Exotic. She has also hosted the popular show “Padma’s Passport” on the Food Network.
Lakshmi has a degree in theater arts from Clark University in Massachusetts. She is fluent in English, Tamil, Hindi and Italian.
The American actress and model has worked with major fashion houses, including Giorgio Armani, Emanuel Ungaro, Roberto Cavalli and Versus. She has been on a number of ad campaigns for the brands.
She was married to the novelist Salman Rushdie from 2004 to 2007 and is the mother of an 11-year-old daughter. Lakshmi is a co-parent and is very involved in her daughter’s life.
As a food critic, she has been published in Gourmet, Vogue and British and American Harper’s Bazaar. She has also written a syndicated column on food and fashion for The New York Times.
Her first cookbook, Easy Exotic, was published in 1999 and her second, Tangy Tart Hot and Sweet, was released in 2008. She has also written a children’s book called Tomatoes for Neela, illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal.
