Janina Gavankar

Janina Zione Gavankar (/dʒəˈniːnə ɡəˈvɑːŋkər/; born November 29, 1980)[1][2][3] is an American actress and musician. Gavankar is trained as a pianist, vocalist, and orchestral percussionist.[4] She majored in Theatre Performance at the University of Illinois at Chicago.[5][6]

Janina Gavankar
Gavankar at the premier of Star Wars: The Last Jedi in 2017
Born
Janina Zione Gavankar

(1980-11-29) November 29, 1980
Joliet, Illinois, U.S.
OccupationActress, musician
Years active2001–present
Websitejaninagavankar.com

Gavankar's roles include a police officer on The Gates; Ms. Dewey, the personification of a Microsoft branded search engine who commented on the user's searches; Shiva, the namesake of the sought-after trophy on The League; shapeshifter Luna Garza on HBO's True Blood; McKenna Hall on The CW's Arrow; and Meredith Bose on NBC's The Mysteries of Laura. She also played Diana Thomas on Fox's supernatural drama Sleepy Hollow.[7]

Early life

Gavankar was born in Joliet, Illinois, to Peter Ganesh Gavankar, an engineer from Mumbai, who first traveled to the U.S. to pursue a master's degree, and Mohra Gavankar, from Pune, Maharashtra, who also emigrated to the U.S. from India. Her mother is half-Indian and half-Dutch.[8]

Career

Gavankar has acted in theatre, film, television, and online. Her most notable roles include Iden Versio, a canon Star Wars character and the protagonist of Star Wars: Battlefront II; shapeshifter Luna Garza in True Blood, Papi in The L Word; Ms. Dewey, the personification of a Microsoft live search engine; and Shiva, the namesake of the sought after trophy on The League.[9] She regularly appears in Funny or Die shorts.[10]

In 2006 she joined the cast of The L Word as a series regular, and shot all of the clips used for Ms. Dewey.[7] In 2007, she landed a lead in CW pilot Dash 4 Cash.[11] In 2008, Gavankar appeared in the TV series Stargate Atlantis, Grey's Anatomy, NCIS, My Boys, and Factory. In 2009, she appeared in the TV shows The Cleaner, Dollhouse, Three Rivers, and The League, as well as indie movies Men, Interrupted, Indian Gangster, and Quantum Quest: A Cassini Space Odyssey. Gavankar played the voice of Nikki in Quantum Quest. She landed a lead role in The Gates, since cancelled, on ABC.[12] She appears on CW's Arrow as a vice squad police officer and brief girlfriend to Oliver Queen.

Gavankar is an admitted gamer[13] and has appeared on, as well as co-hosted, G4 TV's Attack of the Show!, Epileptic Gaming's Up All Night, where she helped review Rock Band, Burnout Paradise, and Army of Two.[14]

In 2011 Gavankar became a series regular in HBO's True Blood as a public school teacher and shapeshifter, Luna Garza, who gets romantically involved with one of the main characters of the series.[15][16]

Her indie movie, Satellite of Love,[17] premiered at the Dallas International Film Festival in 2012, and her 2012 indie I'm Afraid of Virginia Wolf is currently in post-production.[18] On December 20, 2012, Gavankar was the last person interviewed for the now cancelled Attack of the Show! which aired on G4 TV.

On August 3, 2013, Gavankar landed a role as a witch named Qetsiyah in the fifth season of The Vampire Diaries.[19] She guest starred in the third season of Husbands.[20]

In 2014, she starred as Amita in the video game, Far Cry 4.[21] She also played Detective Meredith Bose on The Mysteries of Laura from 2014 to 2016.[22]

She starred as Iden Versio, the main character in the campaign mode of the 2017 Electronic Arts video game Star Wars Battlefront II.[23]

In 2018, she was in two films. Blindspotting premiered at the Sundance Film Festival,[24] and The Vanishing of Sidney Hall was distributed by A24.[25]

In late 2019 Gavankar had a supporting role in the new Apple TV+ series The Morning Show.

Music

Gavankar returned to music with a cover of Kanye West's "Love Lockdown".[26] Gavankar's former all female singing group, Endera, was signed to Cash Money Records Universal Records.[27]

She collaborated on a project for a song called "Tell Me What" in India with Pratichee Mohapatra of Viva, Deep, and Navraaz. She has had songs licensed to movies and television, and has sung and played marimba on film scores. Gavankar was featured in Russian artist Ella Leya's music video for "Wish I Could",[28] in the music video by San Francisco-based band Recliner for their single "Float Away",[29] as well as the music video for Manu Narayan's band Darunam.[30]

In August 2012, she released the single for her upcoming EP, entitled Waiting for Godot,[31] and in November, Billboard premiered the official music video.[32] It went on to win numerous film festival awards.[33][34]

While in high school, Gavankar auditioned for the front ensemble of the Phantom Regiment Drum and Bugle Corps of Rockford, Illinois. Before hearing whether she had made the corps, she was accepted for the Yale School of Drama's summer camp, and went there. "I fell in love with drum corps when I was 13 years old", Gavankar has stated, and remains a strong fan of the activity. When she heard the Martin Garrix/Usher collaboration, "Don't Look Down", she had the idea of performing it as marching music. With assistance from Drum Corps International, she contacted the Jersey Surf Drum and Bugle Corps and arranger Colin Bell. She went into the studios in New York with fifty members of Jersey Surf and recorded the music video "Don't Look Down- #JustAddDrumCorps Edition" that was released in April 2015.[35]

On May 20, 2015, Gavankar performed a percussion duet at Carnegie Hall with Questlove for the Best Buddies charity benefit.[36]

Technology

Gavankar was the first actress to use Twitter, signing up on Richard Branson's computer on Necker Island in 2006.[37][38]

Gavankar was the personification of Microsoft's interactive search engine Ms. Dewey.[7][39]

In 2011 she created a free template for actors and artists to help them control their online presence[40] and in 2012, spoke at the Suits and Spooks Conference about how she discovered a solution for data challenges faced by actors through the use of open source tools.[41]

In 2017, she launched a private discussion forum for members of the games industry.[42]

In 2018, she produced the first narrative film to use the ARRI Alexa LF.[43]

Gavankar is a first round investor in ClassPass.[44]

Awards

In 2008, Gavankar was nominated for an Asian Excellence Award.[45] In 2012, Gavankar received the Gravity Summit Award for Excellence in Social Media.[46]

Filmography

Film
Year Title Role Notes
2001 Why Is God... Mina Short
2003 Dark Kaya
2004 Barbershop 2: Back in Business Field Reporter
2005 Just Speak Melody Short
2005 Cup of My Blood Iona
2008 Shattered! Maria
2009 Indian Gangster Geeta Short
2010 Quantum Quest: A Cassini Space Odyssey Niki (voice)
2010 Men, Interrupted Cece Twain Short
2011 The Custom Mary Ms. Rime
2011 Victory or Death Selah Short
2012 Satellite of Love Michelle
2013 Who's Afraid of Vagina Wolf?[47] Katia Amour / The Stud
2013 The Final Moments of Karl Brant Det. Hostetler Short
2014 Code Academy Madame Counselor Short
2014 Think Like a Man Too Vanessa
2016 Pee-Wee's Big Holiday Herself
2017 The Vanishing of Sidney Hall Gina
2017 Star Wars: The Last Jedi Various voices
2018 Blindspotting Val
2018 White Orchid Tina
2019 Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Various voices
2020 The Way Back Angela
2020 Stucko J Short, also director, writer and producer
TBA Cortex Sama Post-production
TBA Invasion Post-production

Television
Year Title Role Notes
2004 Strong Medicine Nurse Juni Episode: "Omissions"
2007–2009 The L Word Eva "Papi" Torres Recurring role
2008 My Boys Terri Episode: "The Transitioning"
2008 Factory Laura TV series
2008 Stargate Atlantis Sgt. 'Dusty' Mehra Episode: "Whispers"
2008 Grey's Anatomy Intern Lisa Episode: "There's No 'I' in Team", "Life During Wartime"
2009 NCIS Angela Lopez Episode: "Caged"
2009 Dollhouse Lynn Episode: "Epitaph One"
2009 The Cleaner Usha Patel Episode: "The Projectionist", "Trick Candles"
2009 Three Rivers Ada Rahimi Episode: "Place of Life"
2009–2015 The League Shivakamini Somakandarkram Recurring role
2010 The Gates Leigh Turner Main role
2011 Traffic Light Alexa Recurring role
2011–2013 True Blood Luna Garza Main role (seasons 4–5), recurring role (season 6)
2012 The Exes Kerry Episode: "My Dinner with Phil"
2012 Choke.Kick.Girl: The Series Katie Episode: "Hammerfist, Knee, Guillotine Fiend"
2013 Love Is Dead Marisol Rajagopal TV film
2013 Arrow Det. McKenna Hall 4 episodes
2013 The Goodwin Games Hannah Episode: "The Birds of Granby"
2013 Just Face It Ava TV miniseries
2013 Husbands Kajal Episode: "I Dream of Cleaning"
2013 The Vampire Diaries Qetsiyah / "Tessa" Recurring role (season 5)
2014 Nikki & Nora: The N&N Files Lea Sadina Recurring role
2014 Garfunkel and Oates Dr. Sharma Episode: "Third Member"
2014–2016 The Mysteries of Laura Meredith Bose Main role
2015 The History of Us Sabrina TV film
2017 Sleepy Hollow Diana Thomas[48] Main role (season 4)
2018 Hell's Kitchen Herself Guest diner; Episode: "Stars Heating Up Hell"
2018 Daddy Issues TBA TV Movie
2019 You're The Worst Rachel Episode: "Zero Eggplants"
2019 Better Things Nikki Episodes: "Holding", "Monsters in the Moonlight"
2019 The Morning Show Alison Namazi Recurring role
2020 Echo Mel Goodwin Principal role
2020 Space Force Hannah Howard Episode: "EDISON JAYMES"
2020-present The Mighty Ones Kensington (voice) Recurring role

Video games
Year Title Role Notes
2014 Far Cry 4 Amita Voice
2017 Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds Tatai Voice, DLC for the original game
2017 Star Wars Battlefront II Iden Versio Voice, likeness, and motion capture
2019 Afterparty Lola Voice

Audiobooks
Year Title Role Notes
2017 Star Wars Battlefront II: Inferno Squad Narrator[49]
2019 Randomize: Forward Narrator[50] Short Story

Crew work
Year Title Role Notes
2020 The Mandalorian Assistant puppeteer (uncredited)[51] Episode: "Chapter 11: The Heiress"

References
  1. "Janina Gavankar — Shape shifting Stunner". FHM. Archived from the original on 2012-06-26. Retrieved 2012-06-25.
  2. "Stephen Moyer is Such A Proud Father". Us Weekly. Retrieved 2012-06-27.
  3. "Desi designer wear at Grammys red carpet". Hindustan Times. Archived from the original on 2013-01-25. Retrieved 2012-06-27.
  4. Nguyen, Bernie (2006-11-06). "Ask Janina". Nirali Magazine. p. Arts. Retrieved 2007-01-28.
  5. Swartz, Shauna (January 4, 2007). "Interview With The L Word's Janina Gavankar". AfterEllen.com. Viacom International Inc. Archived from the original on May 12, 2007. Retrieved 2007-05-21.
  6. "Recent Grads Find Success". UIC Alumni. September–October 2004. Retrieved 2006-11-10.
  7. Sweeney, Miriam E. (2013). "Not just a pretty (inter)face: A critical analysis of Microsoft's 'Ms. Dewey'" (PDF). University of Illinois. Retrieved 2017-11-27. As one of my co-workers typed in different words and phrases, the "Ms. Dewey" character (pre-recorded film footage of actress, Janina Gavankar) engages in flirtatious banter, sometimes becoming irritated or condescending if too much time passes before entering a search term: "Hellloooo... type something here!"
  8. Khan, Natasha. "Janina Gavankar profile". SAPNA Magazine. p. Arts + Entertainment. Archived from the original on 2016-01-01. Retrieved January 3, 2016.
  9. "Janina Gavankar". IMDb. Retrieved 2017-12-28.
  10. "Janina Gavankar profile". funnyordie.com. Retrieved March 16, 2016.
  11. "Breaking News - Development Update: Wednesday-Thursday, April 4–5". thefutoncritic.com.
  12. "'Prison Break' actor joins ABC's 'Gates'". The Hollywood Reporter. 2010-10-13. Retrieved 2011-09-05.
  13. "Janina Gavankar Talks True Blood, Video Games & More". G4tv.com.
  14. "Epileptic Gaming's "Up All Night"". Wire.ggl.com. Archived from the original on 2011-10-02. Retrieved 2011-09-05.
  15. "True Blood Promotes Jessica Tuck; Adds Three New Actresses". TVGuide.com. Retrieved November 29, 2010.
  16. "Janina Gavankar on Comic-Con, Playing a Shapeshifter, and Why She'd Totally Love to Watch True Blood with You - Exclusive - True Blood". Wetpaint.com. 2011-07-21. Retrieved 2011-09-05.
  17. "Official Site of "Satellite of Love"". Archived from the original on 2012-09-09. Retrieved 2012-05-02.
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  25. "A24, DirecTV Acquire Logan Lerman Sundance Mystery 'Sidney Hall' (Exclusive)". TheWrap. 2017-04-04. Retrieved 2017-12-28.
  26. "Janina Gavankar - Love Lockdown". YouTube. 2010-06-17. Retrieved 2011-09-05.
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  28. "Ella Leya's "Wish I Could"". Youtube.com. 2010-12-01. Retrieved 2011-09-05.
  29. "Recliner's "Float Away"". sausagefilms.com. Archived from the original on 2011-08-26. Retrieved 2011-09-05.
  30. "Darunam's "All That's Beautiful Must Die"". Livevideo.com. Archived from the original on 2011-09-30. Retrieved 2011-09-05.
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  34. "WAITING FOR GODOT". Winter Film Awards. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
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