Padma Lakshmi ( Tamil: பத்மா லட்சுமி, pronounced [ˈpəd̪maː ˈləkʃmiː]; born Padma Parvati Lakshmi Vaidynathan; September 1, 1970) is an American author, actress, model, television host, and executive producer. Her debut cookbook Easy Exotic won her the "Best First Book" award at the 1999 Gourmand World Cookbook Awards. She has been the host of the US reality television program Top Chef since season two in 2006, for which she received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program. In 2010, Top Chef won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Reality-Competition Program. Her debut memoir Love, Loss and What We Ate was released on International Women\'s Day, March 8, 2016.\n', '

Padma Parvati Lakshmi Vaidynathan was born in Madras (now Chennai), India. Her mother, Vijaya, is a retired oncologist. Her father is a retired executive with the pharmaceutical company Pfizer. She hails from Tamil Brahmin Community.\n', '

Lakshmi grew up shuttling between her grandparents in Chennai and her mother in New York. She was sexually assaulted as a small girl. She wrote in the New York Times, "When I was 7 years old, my stepfather’s relative touched me between my legs and put my hand on his erect penis. Shortly after I told my mother and stepfather, they sent me to India for a year to live with my grandparents. The lesson was: If you speak up, you will be cast out."\n', '

Return to Padma Lakshmi Autograph Profile