Seema Rahmani
Seema Rahmani | |
---|---|
File:Seema Rahmani.jpg | |
Born | 3 December 1969 Kuwait |
Nationality | Indian-American |
Occupation | Actress |
Years active | 2000 - present |
Website | http://www.seemarahmani.com/ |
Seema Rahmani is an American (of Indian descent) film actress, television presenter, writer, producer, director, singer, event host, poet, and a philanthropist.
She lives both in India and in the U.S.
Contents
Early life
While her family background links to Pune, Maharashtra, Seema was born and raised in Kuwait where her father worked with an oil company and her mother as an English teacher in a Kuwaiti government high school. She did her initial schooling at Indian School, Salmiya, Kuwait, after which she left Kuwait to be in the U.S. when she was 15. She completed high school in Newark, New York, then a Bachelor of Science with a minor in Mathematics at State University of New York at Fredonia, and an M.A. in Marketing Advertising from Emerson College in Boston. She enjoyed a corporate PR career for a couple of years before she started her acting career.[1][2]
Career
Seema took leave from her Public Relations corporate job in L.A. in 1997 to travel. While in Barcelona, Spain she decided to return and join theater in Los Angeles. She landed stints in two television serials - Alias for ABC and Roswell for Warner Brothers 2000-2001. Rahmani moved to India in 2003 and immediately landed work in films such as Zee TV Films' Arjun Varma and Missed Call by Mridul Toolsidas and Vinay Subrmanium, which was adjudged the Best International film at Israel's Red Sea International Film Festival.[3] She was noticed for her fluency in exploring a character's vulnerability in Vinod Pande's true-story inspired Sins in 2005.[4][5] Then came Loins of Punjab Presents in 2007, which won the Audience Award for best feature film at the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles.[6] These films gave her recognition and drew the attention of independent filmmakers looking for an effortlessly natural actor and a quintessential Indian face.[7][8]
Her work between 2007-2012 as host/anchor of the hit TV show Heavy Petting on NDTV Good Times brought her recognition both as a television presenter and spokesperson for animal-compassion and rights.[9][10][11][12]
Rahmani again re-created herself in versatile and natural performances in the 2012 films Good Night Good Morning and Love Wrinkle-free.[13][14][15][16][17]
In 2013 Seema revisited the theater circuit, this time in Delhi, writing, directing, producing and acting. Her own play Life Like Rainbow Grey was very well received, a true to life account of her experiences in working with children (wards of the state of California) in an institutional group home in Los Angeles, and also on the subject of parenting and marriage.[18][19] She is currently also working on the sequel Life Like Violet Rain and a compilation of short-acts.
Her work as a host forayed into live events including the 21st Annual World Travel Awards Asia and Australasia Ceremony held in 2014, in India, an awards event called "The Oscars" of the travel industry by The Wall Street Journal.[20][21]
Seema has produced the music album "Rab Se...", a unique and original collection of empowering & loving lullabies in Hindi "for children and their adults" [released January 2016], featuring revered and respected singers from India Rekha Bhardwaj, Roop Kumar Rathod, Suresh Wadkar, ghazal maestro Sudeep Banerjee, plus Aditi Paul, Dilip Shankar and herself.[22][23]
Humanitarian Work
Seema's animal welfare work began in her early childhood in Kuwait. As an adult, she has been involved in animal welfare specifically with relevance to animal birth control, rescue, and adoption since the early 90s and again intensively since 2003 in various pockets of Mumbai and Pune.[24] She spearheaded rescue and animal birth control operations, including restructuring inhumane practices into humane operations both in Mumbai and in Panchgini. Seema has adopted a slum in South Delhi and works with its under-privileged children empowering them through various facets in the art of living, including, yoga, meditation, creative arts, and educational field trips.
Politically incorrect, in the wake of a 2005 media sting operation that brought questionable acts in the movie industry to the forefront of media discussions and debates, Rahmani contributed to awareness in the controversial matter through authoring a personal account perspective in an article published by Outlook Magazine (10th anniversary edition)[25] and The Times of India Sunday edition.
Filmography
Films
Year | Film | Role | Language | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
2004 | Arjun Verma | Sameera | Hindi | director Sandeep Varma, Zee TV Films |
2005 | Banana Brothers | Reema | Hindi | director Girija Shankar |
2005 | Hum Kaun Hai | Maria | Hindi | director Ravi Sharma Shankar |
2005 | Sins | Rosemary | English | director Vinod Pandey, Yash Raj Films |
2005 | Missed Call | Rose/Nisha | Hindi | director Mridul Toolsidas and Vinay Subramanium |
2006 | Shakalaka Boom Boom | Seema | Hindi | director Sunil Darshan |
2007 | Loins of Punjab Presents | Sania | English | director Manish Acharya |
2010 | Gangor | Sheetal | English, Bengali | director Italo Spinelli |
2012 | Love Wrinkle Free | Natalie | English | director Sandeep Mohan |
2012 | Good Night Good Morning | Moira | English | also executive producer, director Sudhish Kamath |
2013 | Reprise | Meena | English | director Shipriya Mahesh |
2014 | Unfreedom | Chandra | English | director Raj Amit Kumar |
2015 | Kahani | Memsahib | Hindi | director Sarthak Bhasin |
Television
Year | Title | Channel | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
2007-2012 | Heavy Petting | NDTV Good Times | Travelling Show Host | Animal Show |
2007-2010 | The Big Fat Indian Wedding | NDTV-Good Times | Travelling Show Host | |
2006 | Karamchand | Sony TV | Dr. Rita Kapoor | |
2001 | Alias | ABC | Sara | |
2000 | Roswell | Warner Brothers | Nurse |
References
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
External links
- Use dmy dates from February 2016
- Use Indian English from February 2016
- All Wikipedia articles written in Indian English
- Pages with broken file links
- Articles with hCards
- Indian film actresses
- Indian actresses
- American film actresses
- Actresses in Hindi cinema
- Living people
- 21st-century Indian actresses
- American expatriates in India
- Expatriate actresses in India
- Humanitarians