Padma Lakshmi is an Emmy-nominated food expert, television host, producer and best-selling New York Times author.
She is the creator, host, and executive producer of the critically acclaimed Hulu series Taste the Nation, which received multiple Critics Choice Real TV Awards in both 2021 and 2022 and a 2021 Gotham Award for Breakthrough Series as well as the 2022 James Beard Award for Visual Media in Long Form. Taste the Nation is currently gearing up for its third season.
Lakshmi also serves as host and executive producer of Bravo’s two-time Emmy-winning series Top Chef, which has been nominated for 37 Emmys, including her now four-time nomination for Outstanding Host for A Reality-Competition Program. The epic 20th season of the show is set to premiere in 2023.
She also won the 2022 Critics Choice Real TV Award for Best Show Host for both Taste the Nation and Top Chef.
In 2021, Lakshmi released her first children’s book, The New York Times best-selling Tomatoes for Neelain. Illustrated by award-winning Juana Martinez-Neal, Tomatoes for Neela tells an intergenerational journey while celebrating delicious flavors, international foods, and one family's treasured recipes and traditions.
Lakshmi is an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Artist Ambassador for immigrants' rights and women's rights. Lakshmi was also appointed a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and was awarded the 2021 Advocate of the Year Award by the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA).
Born in India, she grew up in the United States, graduating from Clark University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Theatre Arts and American Literature. Known as India’s first supermodel, she began her career as a fashion model and actress working in Europe and the United States.
Lakshmi established herself as a food expert early in her career hosting Padma’s Passport, where she cooked diverse cuisine from around the world and Planet Food, a documentary series, both on theFood Network domestically and worldwide on the Discovery Channel. She also co-hosted Rai Television's Domenica In, Italy’s highest-rated variety show.
She’s a prolific author, writing the best-selling Easy Exotic, which won the “Best First Book” award at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards. Lakshmi followed this with the publication of her second cookbook, Tangy, Tart, Hot & Sweet and her memoir The New York Times best-selling Love, Loss and What We Ate. She later published The Encyclopedia of Spices & Herbs. In August of 2021 she will publish her first children’s book Tomatoes for Neela.
In addition to her food writing, Lakshmi has also contributed to Vogue, Gourmet, both British and American Harper's Bazaar, as well as penning a syndicated column on fashion and food for The New York Times.
Lakshmi created a fine jewelry line The Padma Collection, which sold at Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom. She also designed a home décor line under the same name featuring tabletop dishware, stemware and hand-blown glass décor pieces, was sold nationwide inBloomingdale’s. In addition, Lakshmi created Padma’s Easy Exotic, a collection of culinary products ranging from frozen organic foods, fine teas, natural spice blends and home goods. In 2018, Lakshmi collaborated with MAC Cosmetics for a worldwide capsule collection called MAC Padma which quickly sold out in both India and the United States.
After unknowingly suffering from endometriosis for decades, in 2009 she co-founded EndoFound(formerly known as Endometriosis Foundation of America) alongside Advanced Gynecological Surgeon Tamer Seckin, MD. EndoFound launched the first interdisciplinary research facility in the country for Gynepathology, as a joint project between Harvard Medical School and MIT and Lakshmi gave the keynote address at the Center’s opening in December 2009.
Her efforts were recognized on the floor of the New York State Senate, where she succeeded in passing a bill related to teen health initiatives. The organization’s ENPOWR program has currently educated over 32,000 students about endometriosis in high schools across the state of New York.
Lakshmi is a visiting scholar at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and has received the 2018 Karma Award from Variety, as well as the 2016 EIHS Ellis Island Medal of Honor.
She lives in New York with her daughter.
