Padma Lakshmi Biography
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Padma Lakshmi
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| Padma Lakshmi | |
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 Lakshmi at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival |
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| Birth name | Padma Parvati Lakshmi |
| Date of birth | Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India September 1, 1970 |
| Height | 5' 9" |
| Hair color | Black |
| Eye color | Brown |
| Spouse(s) | Salman Rushdie (2004-2007) |
| Official website | |
Padma Parvati Lakshmi, Lady Rushdie (Tamil; பத்மா பார்வதி லக்ஷ்மி) (born September 1, 1970) is an Indian American cookbook author, actress, and model. She has been the host of the US reality television program Top Chef since season two. In 2009 she was nominated for an Emmy Award for hosting Top Chef along with Tom Colicchio.
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Early life
Lakshmi was born in Madras, now Chennai (Tamil Nadu) in India before spending most of her adolescent life in the United States.
Her parents' only child together, Lakshmi is the daughter of a Pfizer executive and his first wife, Vijaya 12 a nurse who currently specializes in suicide prevention.3 Her parents separated when she was one and divorced a year later. Both parents later remarried.4
In 1984, when she was 14 years old, Lakshmi was involved in a serious automobile accident, causing an injury to her right arm that required surgery, which left a 7-inch scar3 between her elbow and shoulder. The accident happened on a Sunday afternoon as Lakshmi was being driven home by her parents from a Hindu temple in Malibu. She remembers a loud bang, looking out the windshield and realizing the family's red Mercury sedan was airborne. She described the event in the April 2001 edition of Vogue, saying, "Flying in a car felt like an exhilarating hallucination, an unbelievable ride that oddly remains one of the most beautiful images in my memory." The car flew 40 feet down an embankment and straight into a tree. The tree trunk fell directly on top of the car. Lakshmi remained conscious, covered in glass, for the 40 minutes it took for the paramedics and firefighters to get through the traffic. They used the "jaws of life" to extract the family from the crumpled car. A helicopter landed in the middle of the highway to airlift her parents away while an ambulance carried Lakshmi to the hospital. Everyone survived. Her injuries included a fractured right hip and a shattered upper right arm.
From a later marriage of her father, Lakshmi has a half-brother and a half-sister who was an actress and classical dancer but is now pursuing a career with children with special needs.4 In an interview in The Guardian, Lakshmi said, "My father had quit his job as an executive at Pfizer to manage her career. That was kind of like rubbing salt in the wound. I didn't understand why he wanted that relationship with her, and not with me."3
Education
Lakshmi went to high school in the City of Industry, California. Lakshmi is a 1992 graduate of Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA, where she received a B.A. with honors in Theatre Arts.5
Career
Modeling
Lakshmi's career began at age 16, when she was discovered by a modeling agent in Spain while sitting in a café.3 As she has stated, “I was the first Indian model to have a career in Paris, Milan and New York. I’m the first one to admit that I was a novelty.”4
She has modeled for top designers such as Emanuel Ungaro, Ralph Lauren, and Alberta Ferretti and done ad campaigns for Roberto Cavalli and Versus.6 She was a favorite model of the photographer Helmut Newton, whose photographs of her often highlighted the large scar on her right arm.
She has appeared on the cover of Cosmopolitan, L'Officiel India, Asian Woman, Avenue, Industry Magazine, Marie Claire (India Edition), Harper's Bazaar, Town & Country, and Newsweek.7 Lakshmi also posed nude for the May 2009 issue of Allure magazine.8
Movies and television
Lakshmi had a comical supporting role as the lip synching disco singer Sylk in the 2001 American movie Glitter with Mariah Carey. She starred with Amitabh Bachchan and Jackie Shroff in the 2003 Hindi action box office failure Boom as Shiela Bardez, one of a trio of super models accused of stealing diamonds.9 Lakshmi was last seen on screen as Geeta with Aishwarya Rai and Dylan McDermott in Paul Mayeda Berges' 2005 film The Mistress of Spices. She will be starringcitation needed in Deepa Mehta's upcoming film, Komagata Maru which was earlier titled Exclusion.
Padma Lakshmi made a 2002 guest appearance as alien princess Kaitaama in Precious Cargo, the 37th episode of the science fiction TV series Star Trek: Enterprise. She was also hostess of Domenica In, Italy's top-rated television show.citation needed She portrayed Sean Bean's nemesis in the 2004-2005 iTV TV series Sharpe's Challenge. In 2006 Lakshmi appeared in ABC's TV series The Ten Commandments with Dougray Scott, Naveen Andrews, and Omar Sharif. She took over as host of the popular TV cooking competition series Top Chef in 2006 during its second season and has continued every season since then to its current sixth season. Without much culinary experience, most feel she's on the show only to provide some 'eye candy'!
Music video
In 2009, Padma starred in the EELS video for the song 'That Look You Give That Guy', playing the love interest of Mark Oliver Everett. 10
Cookbooks
Her first cookbook Easy Exotic was awarded Best First Book at the 1999 World Cookbook Awards at Versailles. She was host of the Food Network series, Padma's Passport, which is part of the larger series Melting Pot, in 2001. She also hosted two one-hour specials on India and Spain for the British culinary tourism show Planet Food, which have been broadcast on the Food Network in the US and internationally on the Discovery Channels.11 Her second cookbook Tangy, Tart, Hot and Sweet was released October 2, 2007.12
Personal life
On April 17, 2004, in New York City, Lakshmi married the novelist Salman Rushdie, to whom she was introduced at a party hosted by the journalist and editor Tina Brown.2 On July 2, 2007, the couple filed for divorce.13 She is the model for one of the central characters — and love interests — in Rushdie's novel, Fury (a novel dedicated to her as well).
When questioned about Rushdie's age (he is only seven years younger than her father) and her long estrangement from her father (whom she has described as "the most sexy, manic, in-shape, lean, tall, handsome man I have ever met"), Lakshmi has said that there may be a correlation: “I think that we are attracted to what we feel we need."
On October 1, 2009, after years of struggling with endometriosis, a condition which cause irregularities in the uterus and has been known to cause infertility, it was publicly confirmed that Lakshmi is pregnant with her first child. 14 The father of Lakshmi's child has yet to be disclosed. 15
Lakshmi was brought up as a vegetarian16 and has admitted that because of this, she sometimes becomes "squeamish" when sampling other cultural delicacies.17 However, in 2009, she starred in a commercial for the Carl's Jr restaurant chain eating a Western Bacon Cheeseburger and in her second cookbook Tangy, Tart, Hot and Sweet she credits the chain with bringing her away from vegetarianism during her teenage years.18
Selected filmography
| 1995 | Unzipped | Documentary (High Fashion) | Herself |
| 1997 | Linda e il brigadiere ep: "Il fratello di Linda" |
TV Series (Italian, Comedy) | Indian Lady |
| 1998 | Il Figlio di Sandokan | TV Series (Italian, Drama) | |
| 1999 | Caraibi | TV Series (Italian, Adventure) | Malinche |
| 2000 | Planet Food | Documentary (Cooking) | Host |
| 2001 | Glitter | Film (US, Drama) | Sylk |
| 2001 | Melting Pot: Padma's Passport | TV Series (US, Cooking) | Host |
| 2002 | Star Trek: Enterprise episode: "Precious Cargo" |
TV Series (US, Sci-Fi) | Kaitaama |
| 2003 | Boom | Film (Indian, Drama) | Shiela Bardez |
| 2005 | The Mistress of Spices | Film (Drama) | Geeta |
| 2006 | The Ten Commandments | TV Series (US, Biblical) | Princess Bithia |
| 2006 | Sharpe episode: "Sharpe's Challenge" |
TV Series (Action/History/War) | Madhuvanthi |
| 2006— | Top Chef | TV Series (US, Reality/Cooking) | Host |
| 2009 | 30 Rock | TV Series (US, Comedy) | Herself |
References
- ^ Actresses of mixed parentage Tribune India; March 9, 2003
- ^ a b Stephen Henderson, "Vows: Padma Lakshmi and Salman Rushdie", The New York Times, April 25, 2004
- ^ a b c d Jess Cartner-Morley, "Beautiful and Damned", The Guardian, April 8, 2006
- ^ a b c Padma Lakshmi — Evening Standard Magazine LakshmiFilms.com
- ^ Bravotv.com (2007)BIOS / Padma Lakshmi
- ^ Padma Lakshmi Bio Bravotv.com
- ^ Press for Padma Lakshmi
- ^ Lysaght, Stephanie (2009-04-13). "Padma Lakshmi of 'Top Chef' and Chelsea Handler of E! get naked". Los Angeles Times. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedishrag/2009/04/padma-lakshmi-and-chelsea-handler-bare-all-for-allure.html. Retrieved 2009-04-14.
- ^ Boom at the Internet Movie Database
- ^ http://www.spinnermusic.co.uk/2009/09/01/eels-that-look-you-give-that-guy-video-premiere/
- ^ BBC - Food - TV and radio
- ^ Amazon.com Tangy Tart Hot and Sweet: A World of Recipes for Every Day (Hardcover)
- ^ E! News - Rushdie, Top Chef Wife Skewer Marriage
- ^ http://www.usmagazine.com/momsbabies/news/top-chef-padma-lakshmi-is-pregnant-2009110
- ^ Padma Lakshmi — Evening Standard Magazine April 7, 2006
- ^ Padma Lakshmi — Crossover Bride, L'Officel India
- ^ "Almost Flawless" by Padma Lakshmi. Vogue, April 2001.
- ^ Top Chef Host Padma Lakshmi Takes a Bite NY Daily News; March 26, 2009
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Padma Lakshmi |
- Padma Lakshmi at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
- Padma Lakshmi's official website showcasing her jewelry collection
- Padma's Bio
- Padma Lakshmi at the Internet Movie Database
- Padma Lakshmi's MySpace
- Top Chef Website
- http://www.bravotv.com/top-chef/season-5/about
- Padma Lakshmi Pregnant With ‘Miracle Baby’
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