Alaya Furniturewala

Alaya F was born Aalia Furniturewala on 28 November 1997, in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India to actress Pooja Bedi and businessman Farhan Ebrahim Furniturewala. She is of Parsi and Gujarati Khoja descent on her father's side and Punjabi, Haryanvi, British and Bengali descent on her mother's side. She is the granddaughter of actor Kabir Bedi and classical dancer Protima Bedi.

She studied at Jamnabai Narsee School in Mumbai. Before making her film debut, she earned a diploma in acting at the New York Film Academy and later changed her name to Alaya F. She is presently training to be a contemporary and kathak dancer. In 2011, she appeared on the reality show, Maa Exchange, with her mother.Alaya made her film debut with Nitin Kakkar's Jawaani Jaaneman (2020), a family comedy-drama, in which she played a pregnant 21-year-old girl who uncovers the identity of her father. Bollywood Hungama noted, "Alaya makes an excellent debut and puts up a confident act. She looks gorgeous and is the only actor who moves viewers to an extent". While Vibha Maru of India Today mentioned "Alaya will steal your heart. She is just a natural in front of the camera." She earned the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut for her performance.

Alaya next played the antagonist as a woman in an abusive marriage who seeks help from her dentist (played by Kartik Aaryan) in the 2022 thriller Freddy. Devesh Sharma of Filmfare described Alaya as both "vulnerable" and "cunning". She then appeared in Anurag Kashyap's romance Almost Pyaar with DJ Mohabbat (2023), opposite Karan Mehta. Grace Cyril of India Today was appreciative of Alaya's growth as an actress, and thought that she "portrayed both her characters with ease, perfection and brings out the innocence in her so well". The film emerged as a box-office bomb. In the same year, she played a news intern in the Zee5 film, U-Turn. Deepa Gahlot praised her for "holding the film together, pulling out the right emotions required, and not letting the slightest scepticism leak out of those large, expressive eyes."

In 2024, Alaya played an IT specialist in Ali Abbas Zafar's actioner Bade Miyan Chote Miyan, co-starring Akshay Kumar and Tiger Shroff. It was theatrically released on Eid to negative reviews from critics and emerged as a box-office bomb. She then played the girlfriend of blind entrepreneur Srikanth Bolla in his biopic Srikanth, opposite Rajkummar Rao. Pratikshya Mishra of The Quint noted that she "leaves a mark" despite her limited screen time.