The Biography

Poorna Jagannathan is an American actress and producer. She is best known for her portrayal of Safar Khan in HBO's Emmy and Golden Globe-nominated show, The Night Of, as well as playing the lead in the Bollywood cult comedy film Delhi Belly. She also initiated and produced the play Nirbhaya, written and directed by Yael Farber, which dealt with breaking the silence about sexual violence. Her play won the 2013 'Amnesty International Award' and was called by The Telegraph as the "One of the most powerful pieces of theater you'll ever see". Jagannathan was featured among the top 10 in Femina magazine's "India's 50 most beautiful women" in 2012 and in 2014, she was named among the top 50 most powerful women in India. She was most recently a series regular on Gypsy, a Netflix original series, and part of the ensemble cast for HBO's new anthology series, Room 104, by the Duplass brothers. Her new film, Share, directed by Pippa Bianco and produced by A24, is slated for a 2019 release on HBO. In May 2018, Deadline announced that Jagannathan was joining the cast of the HBO series Big Little Lies, as a new recurring character.