Archie Panjabi Biography

Archana "Archie" Panjabi (born 31 May 1972) is a British actress, best known for her role as Kalinda Sharma on The Good Wife. Her portrayal has earned her a Primetime Emmy Award in 2010 and an NAACP Image Award in 2012, as well as two further Emmy nominations, one Golden Globe nomination, and three Screen Actors Guild Award nominations shared with the cast. Her other notable roles include Yasmin Husseini in Yasmin (2005), Pinky Bhamra in Bend It Like Beckham (2002) and Asra Nomani in A Mighty Heart (2007).

Early life

Panjabi was born in London, to Govind and Padma Panjabi, both Sindhi Hindu immigrants from India. She graduated from Brunel University with a degree in management studies in 1996. She is also classically trained in ballet.

Career

Panjabi has appeared in both film and television, from early appearances in the 1999 comedy film East is East to the BBC television series Life on Mars. Her first Hollywood role, as a British diplomat, was in the Oscar-winning The Constant Gardener, released in 2005. One of her highest profile film roles was in the 2002 comedy release Bend It Like Beckham. Panjabi then landed the role of witty and wisecracking office colleague Gemmain in the 2006 Ridley Scott directed romantic comedy A Good Year, alongside Russell Crowe and Marion Cotillard.

Panjabi next appeared in 2007 with Angelina Jolie in the movie adaptation of A Mighty Heart, a book by Mariane Pearl, wife of the journalist Daniel Pearl, playing the role of former Wall Street Journal reporter Asra Nomani.

She provided the voices for several characters in the British children's television animation Postman Pat. She lent her voice to the video game Dead Space: Extraction. Panjabi appeared on the BBC Four World Cinema Award show in February 2008, arguing the merits of five international hits such as The Lives of Others and Pan's Labyrinth with Jonathan Ross and Christopher Eccleston. In 2009 she portrayed an MI5 agent in the French movie Espion(s), and in the same year she joined the cast of the new CBS television series The Good Wife as Kalinda Sharma.

In 2010, she played Saamiya Nasir in the British comedy The Infidel. On 28 May 2012, she was cast as Tanya Reed Smith, a pathologist, in BBC Two drama series The Fall. Panjabi appeared as Blaise in the BBC World Service radio series Westway.

After leaving The Good Wife in 2015, she guest starred in Fox comedy series Brooklyn Nine-Nine. She will be joining series 3 of BBC Scotland crime drama series Shetland. In 2016, it was announced that she will star in ABC anthology drama series The Jury as the show's protagonist, Kim Dempsey. She also joined the cast of NBC drama Blindspot.

Philanthropy

Panjabi was appointed the first Pratham USA Ambassador representing the largest educational movement in India. She is a celebrity participant in the Rotary International's "This Close" public service campaign to end polio. In support of women's rights, she has partnered with Amnesty International to head their Stop Violence Against Women campaign to change the "no recourse to public funds" rule that traps women in a cycle of violence. On 9 February 2011, Panjabi walked in The Heart Truth's Red Dress Collection Fashion Show to increase awareness of the danger of heart disease, the number one killer of women. The Harvard Foundation and Office for the Arts at Harvard University invited Panjabi to participate in their Artist in Residence Program in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to share her creative process as an actress.

Awards

See List of awards and nominations received by Archie Panjabi for more information Panjabi was awarded Chopard Trophy in Cannes Film Festival in 2007. She was nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for The Good Wife, winning in 2010. She won an NAACP Image Award in 2011 for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for the same role. She was also nominated for three SAG Awards with her co-stars of The Good Wife for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series.

Personal life

In 1998, Panjabi married designer Rajesh Nihalani. She moved to New York from England when she was working on the show The Good Wife.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1995	Bideshi	Joyoti	Short film
1999	East is East	Meenah Khan
2001	Delilah	Adult Pim	Short film
2002	Black Nor White	Sangeeta	Short film
2002	Bend It Like Beckham	Pinky Bhamra
2002	Arranged Marriage	Shashi	Short film
2003	Code 46	Check In
2003	Cross My Heart	Sumi
2004	Yasmin	Yasmin
2005	Chromophobia	Sarita
2005	The Constant Gardener	Ghita Pearson
2006	A Good Year	Gemma
2007	Flying Lessons	Sharmila	Italian title: Lezioni di volo
2007	I Could Never Be Your Woman	Casting Girl
2007	A Mighty Heart	Asra Nomani
2008	Traitor	Chandra Dawkin
2008	My World	Teacher	Short film
2009	Espion(s)	Anna
2009	Be Good	Animal Adoption Officer	Short film
2010	The Infidel	Saamiya Nasir
2010	The Happiness Salesman	Karen	Short film
2013	The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby	Unknown	Panjabi appears in sequels Him and Her
2014	I Origins	Priya Varma
2015	San Andreas	Serena

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1994	Siren Spirits	Joyoti	Episode: "Bideshi"
1995	Under the Moon	Heena	TV movie
1996	The Thin Blue Line	Nazia Habib	Episode: "Alternative Culture"
1997	Dad	Unknown	Episode: "Dadmestic"
2000	Brand Spanking New Show	Various	12 episodes
2000	In The Beginning	Basya	TV movie
2001	A Mind to Kill	Lamisa Khan	Episode: "Colour Blind"
2001	Murder in Mind	WPC Jill Evans	Episode: "Vigilante"
2001	The Bill	Shanaz Arad	2 episodes
2001	Ivor the Invisible	Leila	Voice role
2002	Single Voices	Unknown	Episode: "Little Englander"
2002	The Secret	Nadia's PO	TV movie
2002	Holby City	Ali Safron	Episode: "From This Moment On"
2002	Tough Love	Chandra	TV movie
2002	My Family	Dental Assistant	Episode: "Of Mice and Ben"
2002	White Teeth	Alsana	4 episodes
2003	This Little Life	Niala	TV movie
2003	Final Demand	Farida	TV movie
2003	The Canterbury Tales	Clare	Episode: "The Man of Law's Tale"
2003-2004	Grease Monkeys	Rita Dhillon	20 episodes
2004	Sea of Souls	Megan Sharma	6 episodes
2004-2006	Postman Pat	Meera Baines	24 episodes, voice role
2005	A Very Social Secretary	Ashley	TV movie
2006-2007	Life on Mars	Maya Roy	2 episodes
2007	Silent Witness	Amita Joshi	2 episodes
2007	Love Triangle	Voice role	Short film
2009	Personal Affairs (aka P.A's)	Jane Lesser	5 episodes
2009-2015	The Good Wife	Kalinda Sharma	Main role, 134 episodes
2013-present	The Fall	Professor Reed Smith	9 episodes
2014	The Widower	Simone Banerjee	2 episodes
2015	Brooklyn Nine-Nine	Lieutenant Singh	Episode: "The Funeral"
2016	Shetland	Asha Isran	4 episodes
2016	The Jury	Kim Dempsey	Main role, upcoming series
2016	Power Monkeys	Preeya