Lisa Ray

Lisa Ray - born April 4, 1972 is an Indian /Canadian actress and former fashion model. She grew up in Toronto, is the daughter of a Bengali father and a Polish mother.

Ray started her modelling career at age 16 and was the "brand ambassador" for Lakme cosmetics in India. She made numerous advertisements for various Indian companies before becoming involved in films.

She began her acting career with the Bollywood film Kasoor in 2001 opposite Aftab Shivdasani. Ray then went to Tollywood in 2002 and appeared in Takkari Donga with Mahesh Babu. She has also acted in a kannada film Yuvaraja in which Shiva Rajkumar plays the male lead. She subsequently starred as the female lead of Canadian director Deepa Mehta's romantic Indian-Canadian romp, Bollywood/Hollywood in 2002. In 2005, she worked again with Mehta in the latter's most recent film, Water. The film tells the story of a widow, played by Ray, who lives in a Varanasi ashram. Ray starred opposite John Abraham. Although she learned her lines in Hindi for the shoot, her voice ultimately had to be dubbed over in post-production on account of her strong accent. She also had a minor role in yet to be released Insomnolence (film) by acclaimed Pakistani film maker Ali Saeed.

Ray has said that she desires to be a novelist with a base in Paris. She is also hosting "Beauty Mantra" a television show on the Indian channel Zee TV.

She recently relocated to Los Angeles to pursue acting roles there.

In 2007, she completed filming for Kill Kill Faster Faster, which is a contemporary film noir inspired by the critically acclaimed novel of the same name by Joel Rose.