Archie Panjabi

Archie Panjabi
Panjabi in 2011
Born	Archana Panjabi (1972-05-31) 31 May 1972 (age 40) Edgware, London, England, United Kingdom
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1995–present
Spouse	Rajesh Nihalani (1998-present)

Archana "Archie" Panjabi (born 31 May 1972) is a British actress best known for her role as Kalinda Sharma on CBS's The Good Wife. Archie's portrayal of Kalinda earned her the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (2010).

Personal life

Archana "Archie" Panjabi was born in London.^[1] Her parents Govind and Padma Panjabi are from India. She graduated from Brunel University with a degree in Management Studies in 1996.^[2][3] At the age of 26, she married Rajesh Nihalani, a tailor.^[4]

Career

Panjabi has taken acting roles in both film and television, from early appearances in the 1999 comedy film East is East to the recent BBC television series Life on Mars. Her first Hollywood role, as a British diplomat, was in the Oscar winning The Constant Gardener, released in 2005. One of her highest profile film roles was in the 2002 comedy release Bend It Like Beckham.

In 2007, Panjabi appeared with Angelina Jolie in the movie adaptation of A Mighty Heart, a book by Mariane Pearl, wife of the journalist Daniel Pearl, playing the role of former Wall Street Journal reporter Asra Nomani.

Panjabi has also provided the voices for several characters in the British children's television animation Postman Pat.^[5]

Panjabi lent her voice to the video game Dead Space: Extraction.

Panjabi appeared on the BBC Four World Cinema Award show in February 2008, arguing the merits of five international hits such as The Lives of Others and Pan's Labyrinth with Jonathan Ross and Christopher Eccleston.

In 2009 she portrayed an MI5 agent in the French movie Espion(s), and in the same year she joined the cast of the new CBS television series The Good Wife as Kalinda Sharma. Her most recent film role is as Saamiya Nasir in the British comedy The Infidel.

On May 28, 2012, it was reported that Panjabi had been cast as Paula Reed Smith, a pathologist, in a new drama series for BBC Two titled The Fall. ^[6]

Philanthropy

Archie was appointed the first Pratham USA Ambassador representing the largest educational movement in India.^[7] She joined the CDC and WHO for the "We are this Close" international campaign to eradicate the last 1% of polio left in the world. ^[8] In support of women's rights, she has partnered with Amnesty International to head their Stop Violence Against Women campaign to change the "no recourse to public funds" rule that traps women in a cycle of violence.^[9] Archie walked in The Heart Truth's Red Dress Collection Fashion Show on February 9, 2011 to increase awareness of the danger of heart disease, the number one killer of women.^[10] Harvard University invited Archie to participate in their Artist in Residence Program in Cambridge, Massachusetts to share her creative process as an actress.^[11]

Awards

Panjabi's awards include an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (2012), ^[12] Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (2010),^[13][14] Best Actress Award at the Reims Festival (2005), the Shooting Star Award at the Berlin International Film Festival (2005), the Best Actress Award at the Mons International Festival (2005) and The Chopard Trophy at The Cannes Film Festival (2007). She was named one of the Top 10 Faces on TV to Watch by Variety (2009), one of the Breakout TV Stars of the Year by Entertainment Weekly (2010), one of the Top Young Power Women Under 40 by Verve Magazine (2011), one of GG2’s Power 101 as Britain’s 19th Most Influential and Powerful Asian (2011), one of the Best TV Characters of the Year by MTV (2011), one of the year’s Greatest Scene Stealers by the New York Post (2011) and celebrated as one of eight Master Performers Who Turn Television into Art by The New York Times Magazine.^[15]

Filmography

References

External links

This article's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links, and converting useful links where appropriate into footnote references. (August 2011)

• Archie Panjabi Official Web Site
• Archie Panjabi at the Internet Movie Database
• The Good Wife—CBS Site
• A review of Yasmin.
• "Indian ethnicity helped: Archie". Hindustan Times, June 23, 2007.
• Archie Panjabi interview