| Lakshmi Devy | |
| Birth Place: | New York, United States |
| Years Active: | 2010–present |
| Known For: | When the Music Changes |
Lakshmi Devy is an American actress and screenwriter who has acted in films in the English, Tamil, and Malayalam languages. She won the Remi Award for best director for her film When the Music Changes in 2021. She started her screenwriting career with the Tamil film Masala Padam, in which she also played the lead role. After starting her career as a theatre artist and model, Devy played her first leading role in Nil Gavani Sellathey (2010), directed by Anand Chakravarthy.
In addition to acting in films, she is the principal of a film production company, FiDi Talkies, in the United States.
Devy was born into a family of doctors and engineers in New York where she spent most of her early life. Her mother is a nephrologist and father is a travelogue writer and published author, and they run a hospital in Thiruvananthapuram, India.[1] [2] She did her primary education in New York[3] and completed medical school in India, during which she pursued modelling, dance, and theatre.[4] Devy is a medical doctor and started her film career while she was in medical college.[1]
Lakshmi started her acting career with the Anand Chakravarthy directorial Nil Gavani Sellathey in which she played the main lead role.[5] She later starred in numerous South Indian movies including Cinema Company and critically acclaimed Tamil-language action comedy film Masala Padam, which was also her original screenplay debut.[6] [7] [8]
In 2017, Devy founded FiDi Talkies, a New York-based production company and made her directorial debut with a short film 'Daro Mat' in which she played the protagonist. The film was screened in multiple international film festivals and won several awards. She started her career as a film director in 2020 with the film When the Music Changes which is produced by FiDi Talkies and actor-director John Turturro.[9]
| Denotes films that are in pre-production |
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Nil Gavani Sellathey | Priya | Tamil film |
| 2012 | Cinema Company | Roshni | Malayalam film |
| 2015 | Masala Padam | Diya | Tamil film, Also screenwriter |
| 2017 | Daro Mat | Divya | Short film, Also director, screenwriter and producer |
| 2018 | A Happy Divorce | Rebecca | |
| 2022 | When the Music Changes | Debut as film director | |