Sarita Choudhury

When Sarita Choudhury first started having success as an actor, she didn't immediately go to on to major blockbusters. Instead, she stayed in the indie and stage world, putting in varied and challenging work throughout her career. She was born Sarita Catherine Louise Choudhury Blackheath in London, England. Choudhury's father, Prabhas Chandra Choudhury, was Bengali-Indian, and her mother, Julia Patricia Spring, was British. Choudhury had a varied and cultured upbringing, and was raised in Jamaica, Mexico and Italy. When Choudhury came of age, she studied Economics and Film in Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, then she decided to become an actress. She had a breakthrough role in her first movie, the culture-clash romance "Mississippi Masala" (1992) in which she played the lead role opposite Denzel Washington. Choudhury probably could have gone on to bigger Hollywood movies from here, but she kept doing independent work. She worked again with "Mississippi Masala" director Mira Nair in "The Perez Family" (1995) and "Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love" (1996), and Choudhury also worked with acclaimed Danish director Billie August on "The House of the Spirits" (1993). Choudhury finally moved into bigger Hollywood fare with the thriller "A Perfect Murder" (1998), Spike Lee's oddball romantic comedy "She Hate Me "(2004), and M Night Shyamlan's fairy tale "The Lady in the Water" (2006). On television, Choudhury scored a recurring role on the critically-acclaimed procedural "Homicide: Life on the Streets" (NBC 1993-99) as medical examiner Dr. Kalyani. Choudhury's next recurring role came on the political thriller "Homeland" (Showtime 2011-).