Profile Text
LOS ANGELES – JAN 10: Jagannathan at the “True Detective” Season 3 Premiere Screening at the Directors Guild of America on January 10, 2019 in Los Angeles, CA, kathclick/Bigstock.com
Place of Birth: Tunis, Tunisia
Date of Birth: December 22, 1972
Ethnicity: Tamil Indian
Poorna Jagannathan is an Indian-American actress, producer, and advertising agent. Her roles include television’s The Night Of , Gypsy , Defending Jacob , Never Have I Ever , Ten Year Old Tom , and Deli Boys , and the films Delhi Belly , Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani , Growing Up Smith , Carrie Pilby , The Circle (2017), Mile 22 , Share (2019), Alia’s Birth , The Out-Laws , Turtles All the Way Down , Wolfs (2024), and Goodrich . She co-created and starred in the play Nirbhaya , described as “human rights theatre.”
Poorna was born in Tunis, Tunisia, to Indian parents, Vasantha and G. Jagannathan, with a diplomat father who was serving there at the time. With her father’s career, she was raised in Pakistan, Ireland, Brazil, Argentina, and India. She attended college in Brazil, and then Maryland, U.S. She worked in advertising for fifteen years and started her own consultancy, Cowgirls & Indians.
She is married to Azad Oommen, and has one child. Poorna speaks Tamil, Hindi, English, Spanish, and Portuguese.