Lisa Ray (Rare Image)

Lisa Ray (born April 4, 1972) is a Canadian actress and former fashion model. Lisa Ray was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada to a Bengali Indian father and a Polish mother and grew up in the suburb of Etobicoke, Toronto. She excelled academically, doing five years of high school in four, while attending three different high schools: Etobicoke Collegiate Institute, Richview Collegiate Institute and Silverthorn Collegiate Institute.

She first made her cinematic debut in 1994 in a Tamil movie opposite actor Sarath Kumar in the film Nethaji where she appeared in a brief role. It went unnoticed. After turning down a number of roles, she began her Bollywood acting career with the film Kasoor in 2001 opposite Aftab Shivdasani where her voice was subsequently dubbed by Divya Dutta as she could not speak Hindi. Her work in that film caught the eye of Deepa Mehta who cast Ray in the romantic Indian-Canadian romp, Bollywood/Hollywood in 2002. In 2005, she worked again with Mehta in the Oscar-nominated film, Water where she did speak her own lines in Hindi; eventually though her voice was dubbed. Since breaking through she has worked in productions from Canada, Europe and the United states.