Sameera Reddy

Sameera Reddy was born on 14 December 1978 in Bombay (present day Mumbai), Maharashtra to a Telugu father and a Mangalorean Konkani 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.

Reddy 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. She was meant to make her debut as an actress in Saravana Subbiah's Tamil film Citizen, during the 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.

Reddy had a huge fan base in south India after her debut in Varanam Aayiram. Reddy is also the first Indian actress to have her own video game, Sameera the Street Fighter. Reddy was a judge for the Miss Sri Lanka Online contest in 2012.