Shutterstock
Padma Lakshmi — born on September 1, 1970, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India — is an Indian actress, model, TV host, and author who is best known for her role on the long-running Bravo reality television series Top Chef. She has been hosting Top Chef since 2006.
Lakshmi has received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program for her work on Top Chef.
She is also a published author, as her memoir Love, Loss and What We Ate was released on March 8, 2016. Lakshmi’s first cookbook, which was titled Easy Exotic, first came out in 1999 and won the “Best First Book” award at the 1999 Gourmand World Cookbook Awards. Her second cookbook, Tangy, Tart, Hot, and Sweet, was released in 2007.
After being born in Chennai, India, Lakshmi was raised in America and graduated from William Workman High School in City of Industry, California, before graduating from Clark University in 1992 with a BA in theatre arts.
Following college, Lakshmi began modeling while she was studying abroad in Madrid during college. In 2004, she got married to author Salman Rushdie before the pair got divorced in 2007.