Born in Bangalore to a cross-cultural family whose mother is from South India and father comes from Rajasthan, Nalini migrated to U.S.A at the age of nine. She grew up amidst American culture while retaining her Indian roots. Her talents encompass the essence of worldly traditions, performing arts and professionalism. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Emory University.
A recent graduate of The Maggie Flanigan Studio, she can be seen in various theater, film and commercial productions in NY City where she currently resides. She has been nominated for best featured actress for her performance in M*A*S*H at Onstage Atlanta and placed as a Top Three finalist at the Annual Talent Pool Reel Actors Film Festival in LA for her dramatic film reel in 2006. Her most recent film, Seven Generations, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival Short Film Corner in 2007.
"Dance at the edge of time like dew on the tip of a leaf" - a quote by Rabindranath Tagore
One of my favorite things that kept me going when I was young was when my great grand-mother would tell me stories of the Indian epics, Mahabharata and Ramayana, little by little every night before I went to bed. It took her four years to complete it. But those years were the beginnings of the sparks of my imagination, expanding to fill my great grandmother's words with life and meaning.
Its what I do as an actor, bring words to life and bring life to meaning. Influences in my craft today are Auguste Rodin, Rainer Maria Rilke, Otto Dix, Shakespeare, Satyajit Ray, Rabindranath Tagore, Tom Stoppard, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Meryl Streep, Daniel Day-Lewis, Shabana Azmi, Nandita Das, Sanford Meisner, Maggie Flanigan, my fellow artists and classmates and colleagues and musicians and people of this city who live, live, live.
- Nalini
