She swims with sharks.  She has worked in the turbulent world of investment banking.  She was raised and lives in the thriving metropolis of New York City.  She’s blunt.  She’s funny.  She’s driven.  She’s passionate.  She’s beautiful.  She seeks adventure. 

This is not Purva Bedi’s next role.  This is the real Purva Bedi. 

Whether appearing on stage, in film or in television, Bedi has tackled a variety of roles, from the well-balanced Indian-American engineering student in American Desi to playing Frieda Kahlo off-Broadway.  She’s been an executive assistant, a doctor, a lawyer, a teacher, a Marilyn Monroe-flighty type, and even the heavy role of Gloucester in King Lear.  And she’s ready to take on new roles, whether in the popular drama Gossip Girl, the edgy off-Broadway play “The Really Big Once," or DesiCiti (a South Asian take on Sex & The City).

From the City to Williams to the Silver Screen

Bedi is a native New Yorker, having been raised in Manhattan from a young age.  Growing up in New York, she says, was an incredible experience.  “Being raised in a place with such ethnic and economic diversity, seeing so many different kinds of people made for an extremely unique childhood.  It really provided a stimulating upbringing and kept your juices marinated as an artist,” she recalls.  Inspired by her actress grandmother and mother, Bedi was drawn to the art, and continued her craft with an openness of what was possible.

It was this openness to a new lifestyle that led her to the sleepy town of Williamstown, Massachusetts and Williams College.

 While the small New England town and the rural college was a far cry from Manhattan, Bedi dove right into college life, focusing her studies in the unlikely combination of theater and economics.  She spent her time at Williams studying scripts as well as supply and demand.  Bedi split her summers between summer stock and internships in stocks and bonds, and upon graduation entered a career in the competitive world of finance.  Soon after, Bedi soon realized that it simply wasn’t the place for her.  “Acting gave me the greatest joy, and I believed I would make a greater impact on the world through acting versus finance.  You only live once, so what not try and do it?”

With the same focused openness that guided her through her childhood in New York City and Williams College, Bedi walked out on Wall Street.  Her drive, dedication, and talent brought her roles in theater, and television, and led her to her breakout role as the sweet-yet-sassy Nina in American Desi.  And she’s never looked back.

Juggling the Stage, the Screens, and Sharks

Bedi has spent most of her summer on the stage, in theater workshops as well as performances in Beyond Bollywood and Broadway: Plays from the South Asian Diaspora.  She excitedly recounted her new role as an associate artist with the Target Margin Theater, a company she has worked with since her days at Williams, and currently is working with the company on adapting a one-act play and create a full-length play of The Really Big Once.  “What’s so exciting about this company is their non-traditional approach to theater, for example, in casting their plays where sometimes men play women’s roles and women play men’s roles.  Target Margin was the company that cast me as Gloucester in King Lear, and I’m very excited to do more roles with the company.” 

Bedi speaks with passion as she recounts some of her favorite roles played on stage.  “Playing Frieda Kahlo was an amazing experience.  The role of Esmeralda in Ten Blocks On The Camino Real was one of my favorite roles.  Esmeralda was a Marilyn Monroe-esque, 1950’s sensual bombshell that played ditzy but was completely intelligent.  Most of the time I’m typecast in the role of an intelligent professional; doctors, lawyers, teachers.  I love going to the extreme and playing a brilliant woman disguised as the seductress; the contradictions in a character-which we all have-are exciting to me.”

The theater critics loved Bedi in this role as well, with the New York Times heralding her as “seductive and elusive as Esmeralda.” 

Though she focuses on film and television with the same drive as she does theater, she notes her different experiences between the stage and the screens.  “In TV and film, I’m definitely typecast as a young professional, as many South Asians are.  I’ll be cast as the friend or the sidekick to the lead actress, but have yet to be cast as the lead.”  Theater, she recounts, is quite different.  “Directors want to put their stamp [on a play], so they’re more open to diversity in the cast and doing something different.  In addition to that, there’s a whole slate of roles where they want Middle Eastern and South Asian actors due to the political nature of newer plays,” 

Constantly looking to develop her craft, Bedi outlines her artistic goals.  “I would love to play Lady Macbeth.  She’s so ambitious and would do anything to get ahead.  I do see part of myself in her, and in getting to play her, I would get the chance to really let the ambition out without becoming that way myself,” she laughs.  She would love to land a series regular role in a comedy (“I find comedy challenging and fun, and the life for a sitcom actor is definitely more stable than in film or theater), and in film, looks for a solid role in a great character-driven drama (“An ordinary person under extraordinary circumstances”).

With her high goals and strong dedication, Bedi is extremely balanced with her work and her personal life.  “At the end of a day, it is a job, and you need to make sure you have balance and things that give you joy and will be there for you.  My day-to-day is about looking for work and performing, and when I’m not working I fill my life with other things that balance the bad auditions or being out of work.”

Like swimming with sharks.

Bedi, an avid SCUBA diver, spent a week in Hawaii to dive and take a much needed vacation.  If she wasn’t an actress, she surmises that she may have become a marine biologist.  “I love the ocean and whales.  If I didn’t need to be tied down to a city for work, I’d be spending more time by the sea,” she says, with a light voice. 

Purva’s Own Desi Divas

Bedi comes from an acting family.  Her grandmother ran a theater in India and appeared in over 70 Bollywood films.  Bedi’s mother, in addition to teaching and writing, was also an actress.  “My mother, she manages to be a writer, an artist, a teacher, an actress in film and TV and theater, and raise a family.  She manages to do it all!” Bedi exclaims.  She also lists Saritha Chaudhary as one of her inspirations.  “She was one of the first Indian actors in Hollywood. I went from watching her career to working with her and getting to know her, it’s been amazing to have your role model become your colleague and peer!”

Her family, in addition to being her inspiration, also stands as her rock.  Bedi’s parents, brother and sister-in-law, and nieces have been extremely supportive of her acting career.  She confesses that her father probably wasn’t thrilled with her career choice, but as his own mother was an actress, how could he say no?

Despite the success of Slumdog Millionaire, as well as her own rising star and that of fellow American Desi castmate Kal Penn, Bedi believes that South Asians still have a ways to go in Hollywood.  “Right now, everyone’s trying to make the next Slumdog.  In both Hollywood and Bollywood, they’re trying to clone the film and the success.  Yes, investors are more open to movies with Indians in them.  Indians are now in the rotation to fill certain minority roles in television and film, post-Slumdog,” she states frankly.  “But brown’s been the color of the season for a while now; it’s had its waves, and we’ll see if Slumdog is another wave or if it has solidified the place for South Asians in Hollywood.”

When asked what her definition of a Desi Diva is, Bedi promptly answered “a South Asian woman who is courageous enough to figure out what she wants and goes after it.”

We have no doubt that this Desi Diva will do exactly that.

To learn more about Purva Bedi, please visit her website