Pooja Kumar Bhatt (

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 ...

Joshi), is an American actress of Indian descent who works in Tamil, Hindi, and English-language Indian films. After winning

Miss India USA Miss India USA is a beauty pageant for young women of Indian descent who are residents of the United States. The pageant was established in 1980 by the India Festival Committee headed by Dharmatma Saran. The winner of the Miss India USA pageant ...

in 1995, she pursued a career as an actress and producer. She has appeared in a number of American films and shows, including ''

Man on a Ledge ''Man on a Ledge'' is a 2012 American action thriller film directed by Asger Leth, starring Sam Worthington, Jamie Bell, Elizabeth Banks, Edward Burns, Anthony Mackie, Genesis Rodriguez, and Ed Harris. Filming took place in New York City on ...

'', ''

Brawl in Cell Block 99 ''Brawl in Cell Block 99'' is a 2017 American neo-noir prison action thriller film directed and written by S. Craig Zahler and starring Vince Vaughn with Jennifer Carpenter, Don Johnson, Udo Kier, Marc Blucas, and Tom Guiry. The story follow ...

'', ''

Bollywood Hero ''Bollywood Hero'' is an American musical comedy television miniseries that aired on the IFC in three parts on August 6–8, 2009. The miniseries were shot in Mumbai and Los Angeles. The show is a musical miniseries about Chris Kattan and hi ...

'', ''

Flavors Flavour or flavor is either the sensory perception of taste or smell, or a flavoring in food that produces such perception. Flavour or flavor may also refer to: Science * Flavors (programming language), an early object-oriented extension to L ...

'', ''Hiding Divya'', ''Park Sharks'', ''

Bollywood Beats ''Bollywood Beats'' is a 2009 Bollywood-inspired dance film written and directed by Mehul Shah. It was produced by Kinetik Films and distributed by Breaking Glass Films. Plot Raj (Sachin Bhatt) is an Indian-American choreographer trying to make ...

'', '' Night of Henna'', ''Anything for You'', ''Drawing with Chalk'', and ''Knots Urbane''. Her Indian films include ''

Vishwaroopam ''Vishwaroopam'' (titled ''Vishwaroop'' in Hindi; ) is a 2013 Indian action spy film co-written, directed and produced by Kamal Haasan, who also enacts the lead role. The film also stars Rahul Bose, Shekhar Kapur, Pooja Kumar, Andrea Jeremia ...

'' and '' Vishwaroopam 2'', and she made her Telugu-language debut with ''

PSV Garuda Vega ''PSV Garuda Vega'' is a 2017 Indian Telugu-language action spy film written and directed by Praveen Sattaru. The film is produced by M. Koteswara Raju and stars Rajasekhar, Pooja Kumar, Adith Arun, Shraddha Das, and Kishore, while Sanjay Red ...

''.

Early life

Pooja Kumar Bhatt was born in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...

. Her parents, Ravinder and Nirupama Bhatt, immigrated from India in 1970. She attended

Washington University Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) is a private research university in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1853 by a group of civic leaders and named for George Washington, the university spans 355 acres across its Danforth ...

, where she graduated with degrees in

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

and

finance Finance refers to monetary resources and to the study and Academic discipline, discipline of money, currency, assets and Liability (financial accounting), liabilities. As a subject of study, is a field of Business administration, Business Admin ...

. She is also trained in

Indian classical dance Indian classical dance, or ''Shastriya Nritya'', is an umbrella term for different regionally-specific Indian classical dance traditions, rooted in predominantly Hindu musical theatre performance,, Quote: All of the dances considered to be part ...

. Kumar won

in 1995.

Career

Kumar first signed on to appear in director

Keyaar Kothanda Ramaiah (also known as K. R. and Keyaar) is an Indian film director, producer, distributor and exhibitor. He has held various leading positions in different film industry organizations. Career KR studied film processing at the M.G.R. ...

's Tamil film '' Kadhal Rojave'' in 1997, but the film's production delays meant that it was only released in 2000 and her stint as an actress in the Tamil film industry went unnoticed. She was earlier signed and then left out of the 1997 film '' V. I. P'', while she had also signed to appear alongside Karthik in Chithra Lakshmanan's ''

Chinna Raja ''Chinna Raja'' is a 1999 Indian Tamil-language action thriller film directed and produced by Chitra Lakshmanan. The film stars Karthik in dual lead roles alongside Roja and Priya Raman. It was released on 5 March 1999. Plot Cast Pro ...

'', but was eventually dropped from the project. In 2003, she received the

Screen Actors Guild The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) was an American labor union which represented over 100,000 film and television principal and background performers worldwide. On March 30, 2012, the union leadership announced that the SAG membership voted to m ...

Emerging Actress Award for ''Flavors''. In 2008, she hosted a late-night live

quiz show A game show (or gameshow) is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment where contestants compete in a game for rewards. The shows are typically directed by a host, who explains the rules of the program as well as commentating and narrating whe ...

Zee TV ZEE TV also known as Z TV is an Indian Hindi language general entertainment pay television channel owned by Zee Entertainment Enterprises. It was launched on 1 October 1992 as the oldest privately owned television channel in India. History ...

in India, known as ''Jaago Aur Jeeto''. She appeared in the musical comedy miniseries ''

'' on IFC in 2008. She starred opposite ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL'') is an American Late night television in the United States, late-night live television, live sketch comedy variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Michaels and Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC. The ...

'' comedian

Chris Kattan Christopher Lee Kattan ( ; born October 19, 1970) is an American actor and comedian. After performing with numerous comedy troupes, including The Groundlings in Los Angeles, he broke through as a regular cast member on the sketch comedy show ''Sat ...

in the three-part series. In the late 2000s, she appeared in the Pakistani drama serial '' Ishq Junoon Deewangi'' on

Hum TV Hum TV HD is a 24-hour Urdu general entertainment TV channel based in Karachi, Pakistan. It was founded by Sultana Siddiqui and Duraid Qureshi. It is owned by Hum Network Limited and traded on the Pakistan Stock Exchange as (HUMNL). Hum Net ...

. After a long gap, she reappeared onscreen in the film ''

''.

Personal life

Kumar is married to Vishal Joshi. They have a daughter, born in 2020.

Selected filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

*
"Pooja Kumar the face of Bombay Dreams"
Rediff – February 10, 2004 * Rohit, Parimal M
"Pooja Kumar – The New Heroine: Rising Star Ready for Primetime with 'Bollywood Hero'"
''Bollywood Buzzine'' July 2009 {{DEFAULTSORT:Kumar, Pooja Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Actresses from St. Louis Female models from Missouri American film actresses American television actresses American female models American actresses of Indian descent American female models of Indian descent American expatriate actresses in India Actresses in Hindi cinema Actresses in Tamil cinema Actresses in Telugu cinema 21st-century American actresses Washington University in St. Louis alumni