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Meet Priyanka Chopra, the fast-rising actress and one of the 'most influential people' in the world
Priyanka Chopra's parents were both doctors in the Indian army. They moved a lot and Priyanka even attended the 10th grade in Boston, Massachusetts, where she said she was bullied. "It broke my spirit," she says. "It made me question who I was. Why was it so uncool being Indian?"
Entertainment1 min readPriyanka Chopra's mother entered her in the Miss India World pageant. She actually placed second, but went on to Miss World and won.
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Priyanka Chopra is a huge fan of Instagram, on which she has more than 6.5 million followers.
Before "Quantico," Chopra may have been best known to Americans for her song "In My City," which featured artist will.i.am and was the theme song for Thursday Night Football in 2013. And her second single, "Exotic," featured Pitbull.
In July 2012, Priyanka Chopra became the first Bollywood star signed by Creative Artists Agency.
Chopra landed the lead role in ABC's "Quantico," playing an FBI agent in training who finds herself in the middle of a terrorist attack in New York City.
In 2003, Priyanka Chopra made her first Bollywood movie, "The Hero: Love Story of a Spy." Chopra has starred in more than 50 Indian films taking on roles of a model, a boxer, and an autistic teenager.
In 2008's "Fashion," Priyanka Chopra played a model and received backlash from the media accusing her of trying to lose weight for the part. She said she actually had to gain weight and then lose it as the film progressed. Since then, Chopra has been an advocate for positive body image, telling InStyle, "I believe in a woman having curves."
Priyanka Chopra began writing an opinion column, "The Priyanka Chopra Column," for the Hindustan Times in 2009. She wrote several controversial columns regarding women's lives and safety in the country. She also writes a column for Elle.
She was appointed India's official UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador for Child Rights in 2010.
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One of her more notable American movie roles was voicing the airplane named Ishani in the 2013 Disney animated movie "Planes."
Priyanka Chopra has been chosen as the face of many brands, including Pepsi, Nokia, Garnier, Nestlé, and GUESS.
She is a spokeswoman for the UN's Girl Up campaign and an ambassador for Girl Rising, the global campaign for female education. "Every girl should have the opportunity to reach her full potential," she said.
The tattoo on her wrist reads "Daddy's lil girl" in her father’s handwriting. Chopra credits her father for a lot of her confidence. "My father always told me, 'You should not want to fit into someone else's glass slipper. You should shatter the glass ceiling,'" she said.
She started The Priyanka Chopra Foundation for Health and Education, which currently covers educational and medical expenses for 70 children in India. "I can't eradicate poverty, but at least for the people around me, I can help make sure no child is denied a dream," she said in an interview with Glamour.
In 2016, she received the People's Choice Award for "Favorite Actress in a New TV Series" for her role in "Quantico," making her the first South Asian actress to win a People's Choice Award.
Priyanka Chopranow splits her time between New York, Mumbai, Los Angeles, and Montreal, where "Quantico" films.
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