Padma Lakshmi

Lakshmi graduated from William Workman High School in City of Industry, California,[7] in 1988.[11]

Lakshmi attended Clark University, in Worcester, Massachusetts. She began her modeling career while an exchange student in Madrid, Spain. Lakshmi graduated with a degree in theater arts and American literature in 1992.[12][13]

In 2018, Lakshmi wrote in The New York Times that she was sexually assaulted as a small girl, "When I was 7 years old, my stepfather's relative touched me between my legs and put my hand on his erect penis. Shortly after I told my mother and stepfather, they sent me to India for a year to live with my grandparents. The lesson was: If you speak up, you will be cast out."[14]

She also revealed a 1986 sexual assault, in which she was raped at the age of 16. She wrote, "It took me decades to talk about this with intimate partners and a therapist. Now, 32 years after my rape, I am stating publicly what happened. I am speaking now because I want us all to fight so that our daughters never know this fear and shame and our sons know that girls’ bodies do not exist for their pleasure and that abuse has grave consequences."[14]

Lakshmi's modeling career began at age 21. While studying abroad in Madrid, she was discovered by a modeling agent.[9] She has said, "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."[15] Lakshmi was able to pay off her college loans by working as a model and actress.

She has modeled for designers such as Emanuel Ungaro, Giorgio Armani, Gianni Versace, Ralph Lauren, and Alberta Ferretti, and appeared in ad campaigns for Roberto Cavalli and Versus.[16] She was a favorite model of the photographer Helmut Newton, whose photographs of her often highlighted the large scar on her right arm.[17]

Lakshmi has appeared on the covers of Redbook, Vogue India, FHM, Cosmopolitan, L'Officiel India, Asian Woman, Avenue, Industry Magazine, Marie Claire (India Edition), Harper's Bazaar, Town & Country, and Newsweek.[18] She also posed nude for the May 2009 issue of Allure.[19]

She has done shoots for photographers Mario Testino and Helmut Newton.[9][20]

Lakshmi on Taste the Nation

Lakshmi is the current host and one of the judges on the television show Top Chef. She has since hosted the show consecutively, with season 17 the latest. The show has been nominated in Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Reality-Competition Program from season 2 up until season 16, with season 6 winning the award in 2010.

She also serves as an executive producer of the show. Lakshmi was nominated in the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program in 2009 for the season 5 of Top Chef.

Lakshmi is known as an outspoken advocate for immigrant rights and the independent restaurant industry.[21] In "Taste the Nation," a new series on Hulu, Lakshmi collectively expands and redefines the meaning of American food.[22]

Previously, Lakshmi first served as a host of Domenica In, Italy's top-rated television show, in 1997.[23] She hosted the Food Network series Padma's Passport,[20] which was part of the larger series Melting Pot in 2001, where she cooked recipes from around the world. She also hosted two one-hour specials in South India and Spain for the British culinary tourism show Planet Food, broadcast on the Food Network in the U.S. and internationally on the Discovery Channels.[24]

Lakshmi was also an official contributor for season 19 of The View from 2015 to 2016.[25] For celebrity contestant, she competed and won against music producer Randy Jackson in an episode of TBS's Drop the Mic that aired on December 26, 2017.[26]

Her first film roles were in the Italian pirate movies The Son of Sandokan and Caraibi (Pirates: Blood Brothers). She had a comical supporting part as the lip-synching disco singer Sylk in the 2001 American movie Glitter, starring Mariah Carey. In 2002, Lakshmi made a guest appearance as alien princess Kaitaama in "Precious Cargo," the 37th episode of the science fiction TV series Star Trek: Enterprise. She portrayed Madhuvanthi in the TV movie Sharpe's Challenge (aired 2006).[27] In 2006, she appeared in ABC's Biblical TV series The Ten Commandments as Princess Bithia. In 2009, Lakshmi starred in the video for the Eels song "That Look You Give That Guy".[28]

She starred in the 2003 Bollywood film Boom, alongside Katrina Kaif and Madhu Sapre, as one of three supermodels who are accused of stealing diamonds. She played the role of Geeta in Paul Mayeda Berges's 2005 film The Mistress of Spices. Lakshmi also made a guest appearance on the NBC series 30 Rock in 2009 and appeared on Whose Line Is It Anyway? in 2014.

She made an appearance in Good Mythical Morning on 8th March 2018, called "Burnt Food Taste Test ft. Padma Lakshmi (GAME)". It amassed a huge negative backlash from regular viewers of the show and became one of the most disliked video of the Internet series. [29]

Her Hulu show Taste the Nation with Padma Lakshmi premiered on June 19, 2020.[30]

Lakshmi's first cookbook, Easy Exotic, a compilation of international recipes and short essays released in 1999, was awarded the Best First Book at the 1999 Gourmand World Cookbook Awards in Versailles. Her second cookbook, Tangy, Tart, Hot and Sweet, was released on October 2, 2007.[31] Her first memoir, Love, Loss and What We Ate, was released on International's Women's Day, March 8, 2016. Lakshmi released her third cookbook, an encyclopedia and cookbook, The Encyclopedia of Spices and Herbs in October 2016.

She had a syndicated column in The New York Times[32] and has written articles on style for the American edition of Vogue, at editor Anna Wintour's request. She also wrote a column on style for Harper's Bazaar (UK and US editions), following a commission from editor Glenda Bailey.

• Easy Exotic: A Model's Low Fat Recipes From Around the World (1999), cookbook
• Tangy, Tart, Hot and Sweet: A World of Recipes for Every Day (2007), cookbook
• Love, Loss, and What We Ate: A Memoir (2016), memoir
• The Encyclopedia of Spices and Herbs: An Essential Guide to the Flavors of the World (2016), encyclopedia/cookbook

In 2009, Lakshmi launched her first line of jewelry, Padma. She also has two tableware collections. The first, The Padma Collection, is a line of dinnerware composed of Moroccan ceramics and Turkish glass. The second, Easy Exotic, is a line of more casual kitchenware. Under the Easy Exotic brand, Lakshmi also has a line of specialty spices and teas as well as a line of organic frozen rices.

Lakshmi is a co-founder of the Endometriosis Foundation of America, a nonprofit organization focused on increasing awareness, education, research, and legislative advocacy against the disease.[36][37] The foundation was instrumental in the opening of the MIT Center for Gynepathology Research, where Lakshmi gave the keynote address.[38] She is a global ambassador for Keep a Child Alive, and since 2007 has traveled to sites in India on their behalf. She is also a strong advocate of women's rights.[39]

Lakshmi is the American Civil Liberties Union ambassador for immigration and women's rights. She has been an outspoken critic of skin-lightening creams that are marketed to people of color, particularly in non-white majority nations.[40] She has also spoken about the colorism she has experienced while living in India and the United States.[41][42]

Lakshmi was appointed United Nations Development Programme Goodwill Ambassador on March 7, 2019. "My main mission as UNDP Goodwill Ambassador is to shine a spotlight on the fact that inequality can affect people in rich and poor countries alike. Many nations have greatly reduced poverty, but inequality has proved more stubborn," said Lakshmi. "Inequality is further compounded by gender, age, ethnicity and race. It especially affects women, minorities and others who face unimaginable discrimination in the societies in which they live."[43]