Melanie Chandra (

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

Kannokada; born February 28, 1986) is an American actress, model, and co-founder of Hospital for Hope. She is best known for her roles as Malaya Pineda on the

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

medical drama '' Code Black'' and Mel in the

Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American Cable television in the United States, cable television channel, channel owned by Paramount Global through its Paramount Media Networks, network division's Paramount Media Networks#MTV Entertainment Group, MTV Ente ...

television movie ''Hot Mess Holiday''.

Early life and education

Melanie Chandra was born Melanie Kannokada to

Malayali The Malayali people (; also spelt Malayalee and sometimes known by the demonym Keralite) are a Dravidian ethnolinguistic group originating from the present-day state of Kerala and Union Territory of Lakshadweep in India, occupying its south ...

Indian parents Suresh Kannokada and Sujatha in

Buffalo Grove, Illinois Buffalo Grove is a Village (United States)#Illinois, village in Lake County, Illinois, Lake and Cook County, Illinois, Cook Counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. A suburb of Chicago, it lies about northwest of Downtown Chicago and north of ...

. After high school, Chandra earned a Mechanical Engineering degree from

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

. Upon graduation, Chandra initially began working at consulting firm

McKinsey & Company McKinsey & Company (informally McKinsey or McK) is an American multinational strategy and management consulting firm that offers professional services to corporations, governments, and other organizations. Founded in 1926 by James O. McKinse ...

, which she left to concentrate on her interest in modeling and acting. She stated that she found the management job "intellectually fascinating" but not something she wanted to do "getting up every morning".

Career

After finishing college, Chandra entered and won the 2007 Miss India America contest. Chandra worked as a model and commercial actress in national and international campaigns for Nescafe, Verizon, Glamour Magazine, P&G, Crocs, Acura, Herbal Essences, LG, and Clinique. In fall 2011, she was selected as one of the five faces of Bare Escentuals international "Be A Force of Beauty" campaign. In fall 2012, she was selected to model in a five-page editorial spread for Vogue India Magazine. Within a week of moving to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career, Chandra successfully auditioned for guest star role in the CBS hit sitcom '' Rules of Engagement'' opposite comedian

David Spade David Wayne Spade (born July 22, 1964) is an American stand-up comedian, actor and podcaster. His comedic style, in both his stand-up material and acting roles, relies heavily on sarcasm and self-deprecation. For his roles on television, Spade h ...

. She starred in the CBS show '' Code Black'' and has guest starred in ABC Family's '' The Nine Lives of Chloe King'', NBC's '' Parenthood'' and CBS's '' NCIS: Los Angeles''. She also had a large recurring role on HBO's The Brink opposite

Jack Black Thomas Jacob "Jack" Black (born August 28, 1969) is an American actor, comedian, and musician. He is known for roles in family and comedy films, in addition to his voice work in animated films. His awards include a Children's and Family Emmy ...

and

Aasif Mandvi Aasif Hakim Mandviwala, known professionally as Aasif Mandvi (, ), is an English–American actor, comedian and writer. He was a List of The Daily Show correspondents, correspondent on ''The Daily Show'' from 2006 to 2017. Mandvi's other televis ...

. In 2019, it was announced she will be developing a series called "Attachment" with

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

, alongside her co-creator and writer, Amy Aniobi, and

Reese Witherspoon Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon (born March 22, 1976) is an American actress and producer. She is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Reese Witherspoon, various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Aw ...

's Hello Sunshine. In 2019, Chandra stars in Surina and Mel, a show about two American-born South Asian women living in New York City figuring out adulthood. In 2020, Variety announced Chandra was joining the cast of the Chris Blake quarantine comedy, Distancing Socially. The film was shot at the height of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

in 2020, using remote technologies and the iPhone 11. The film was acquired and released by Cinedigm in October 2021. In 2022, Chandra starred in the movie ''Lie Hard,'' a comedy about a pathological liar who borrows $4 million from a crime syndicate to purchase a mansion in order to impress his girlfriend's wealthy parents. In January 2023, Chandra voice acted as Mira in Meet Cute's series, ''The Lonely Wife.'' The story follows Mira, who is forced to take a hard look at her marriage when her husband’s childhood friend crashes with them for the weekend.

Personal

Chandra is also a co-founder of Hospital for Hope, a non-profit providing healthcare services in rural India. She is also a trained pianist. Chandra is a 2nd degree black belt in

Shotokan Karate is a style of karate, developed from various martial arts by Gichin Funakoshi (1868–1957) and his son Gigo (Yoshitaka) Funakoshi (1906–1945). Gichin Funakoshi was born in Okinawa and is widely credited with popularizing "karate do" thr ...

and a two-time bronze medalist in the Pan American games, where she represented the United States in

sparring Sparring is a form of training common to many combat sports. It can encompass a range of activities and techniques such as punching, kicking, grappling, throwing, wrestling or submission work dependent on style. Although the precise form varies, ...

as part of the United States Junior National Karate Team in

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

in 2000,

Caracas Caracas ( , ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas (CCS), is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the northern p ...

in 2001, and Orlando in 2002.

Filmography

Television

Film

References

External links

Official Website
*
Times of India article

Economic Times article
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chandra, Melanie Living people Actors from Park Ridge, Illinois Actresses from Illinois American businesspeople American film actresses American actresses of Indian descent American female karateka American people of Malayali descent Actresses in Telugu cinema American expatriate actresses in India Female models from Illinois Stanford University alumni 21st-century American actresses 1986 births