Lisa Ray is a Canadian-born Bollywood actress and former fashion model. She was born on April 4, 1972. Ray started her modeling career at age 16. She was the brand ambassador of Lakme cosmetics in India. She did a lot of advertisements for Indian companies before becoming involved with Bollywood.

Personal life

She grew up in Toronto and is the daughter of a Bengali father and a Polish mother, she is Hindu. She started her acting career with the film Kasoor(2001) opposite Aftab Shivdasani. Then she went to Tollywood in 2002 and did Takkari Donga with current sensation Mahesh Babu. She then starred as the female lead of Canadian director Deepa Mehta's romantic Indo-Canadian romp, Bollywood/Hollywood(2002). In 2005, she was working again with Mehta in her most recent film, Water. The film is about a widow played by Ray, who is left on the streets of Varanasi, where she becomes a prostitute. Ray starred opposite current Bollywood heart-throb, John Abraham. Although both seem to sizzle on screen, John says that, "This is not a romantic film, throughout the entire film, the closest Lisa and I get is to be holding hands." Lisa Ray has said that she desires to be a novelist with a base in Paris.

Lisa is also hosting "Beauty Mantra" a television show on the Indian channel Zee TV.