Sameera Reddy

Sameera Reddy (born 14 December 1980) is a former Indian actress who primarily starred in Hindi-language films. She has also appeared in a few Telugu, Tamil Kannada and Malayalam-language films.

Sameera Reddy made her film debut with the 2002 film Maine Dil Tujhko Diya. She is best known for starring in films such as Darna Mana Hai (2003), Musafir (2004), Jai Chiranjeeva (2005), Taxi Number 9211 (2006), Ashok (2006), Race (2008), Varanam Aayiram (2008), De Dana Dan (2009), Aakrosh (2010), Vettai (2012) and Tezz (2012).

Sameera was born on 14 December 1980 in Mumbai, Maharashtra to a Telugu father and a Mangalorean mother. Her mother Nakshatra, referred to as Niki by her daughters and the media, was a microbiologist and worked with an NGO. She has two siblings, Meghna Reddy, a former VJ and supermodel, and Sushama Reddy, a Bollywood actress and model, both elder to her. She did her schooling at Bombay Scottish School in Mahim, Mumbai and graduated from Sydenham College.

Sameera described herself as a "tomboy" and "the ugly duckling in the family", while citing: "I was plump, had glasses and my glam quotient was rather low till I was 19."

Reddy first appeared in ghazal singer Pankaj Udhas's "Aur Aahista" music video in 1997. Sameera was meant to make her debut as an actress in Saravana Subbiah's Tamil film Citizen, during early 2000s, but eventually did not feature. She caught the attention of Bollywood and was cast in a pivotal role in the 2002 Hindi film Maine Dil Tujhko Diya. In 2004, she appeared in Musafir, opposite Anil Kapoor, Aditya Pancholi and Koena Mitra.

Sameera is also the first Indian actress to have her own video game, Sameera the Street Fighter. This mobile video game can be downloaded by millions of fans and is available to cell phone users throughout India.

Reddy is a big fan of American talk show hostess Oprah Winfrey. She met Oprah during the former's visit to India at the welcome party hosted by Parmeshwar Godrej. As the television celebrity was reportedly impressed by Sameera's saree, she was presented a similar saree as a gift by the actress before she left India.

Reddy married Akshai Varde, an entrepreneur on 21 January 2014. It was a traditional Maharashtrian wedding. They had a son in 2015. The couple had a baby girl on 12 July 2019.

Reddy was a judge for the Miss Sri Lanka Online contest in 2012.