Biography
Early life
Padma was born in the South Indian State of Kerala, India, on September 1, 1970, though she grew up in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. However, Padma spent most of her adolescent life in the United States.
Her parents' only child together, Lakshmi is the daughter of an executive with Pfizer and his first wife, Vijaya,[2] a nurse who currently specializes in suicide prevention.[1] Her parents separated when she was one and divorced a year later. Both parents later remarried[3]
When she was 14 years old, she was involved in a serious automobile accident, causing an injury to her right arm, which required surgery leaving a 7 inch scar,[1] between her elbow and shoulder. The accident happened on a Sunday afternoon on her way back with 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. Padma describes the event in the April 2001 edition of Vogue as "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 straight into a tree. The tree trunk fell directly on top of the car. She 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 air lift her parents away while an ambulance carried Padma to the hospital. Fortunately, everyone survived. Her injuries included a fractured right hip and a shattered upper right arm which resulted in her infamous seven-inch scar.
By 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.[3] As Lakshmi said in an interview published in The Guardian, "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."[1]
Education
Lakshmi graduated from William Workman 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.[4]
Lakshmi was brought up as a vegetarian[5] and has admitted that because of this, she sometimes becomes "squeamish" when sampling other cultural delicacies. [6]
Career
Modeling
Lakshmi's career began at age 20, when she was discovered by a modeling agent in Spain while sitting in a café.[1] 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.”[3] Despite Lakshmi's comment about her being a pioneer as a model of Indian descent, her career follows in the footsteps of Persis Khambatta, a former Miss India, who modeled for Revlon.
She has modelled for top designers such as Emanuel Ungaro, Ralph Lauren, and Alberta Ferretti and done ad campaigns for Roberto Cavalli and Versus.[7] 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 magazine covers of Cosmopolitan - January 2002,[8] L'Officiel India - October 2004,[9][10] – December 19, 2004,[11] - Spring 2005,[12] - October 2005, Newsweek - March 6, 2006,[13] Asian Woman– May/June 2006,[14] Avenue - July/August 2006, and[15] Industry - February/March 2007.
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 co-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.[16][17] 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 starring[citation needed] in Deepa Mehta's upcoming 2007 film, Kamagata 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 hostess 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 fifth season.
Awards
Lakshmi was named number 66 on AskMen.com's "The Top Most Desirable Women of 2008" list.
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 has also been a guest host on parts of the British culinary tourism show Planet Food, hosting the segments on India and Spain.[18] Her second cookbook Tangy, Tart, Hot and Sweet was released October 2, 2007.[19]
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, shortly after Rushdie was granted a knighthood.[20] 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 seven years older 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."[21]
Currently, Padma is dating Ted Forstmann.
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) | N/A |
| 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 ep: Precious Cargo | TV Series (US, Sci-Fi) | Kaitaama |
| 2003 | Boom | Film (Indian, Drama) | Shiela Bardez |
| 2005 | The Mistress of Spices | Film (Indian, Drama) | Geeta |
| 2006 | The Ten Commandments | TV Series (US, Biblical) | Princess Bithia |
| 2006 | Sharpe ep: Sharpe's Challenge | TV Movie (Action/History/War) | Madhuvanthi |
| 2006 | Top Chef 2 | TV Series (US, Reality/Cooking) | Host |
| 2007 | Top Chef 3 | TV Series (US, Reality/Cooking) | Host |
| 2008 | Top Chef 4 | TV Series (US, Reality/Cooking) | Host |
| 2008 | Top Chef 5 | TV Series (US, Reality/Cooking) | Host |
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