Aarti Mann
Aarti Majumdar, better known by her stage name Aarti Mann, is an American actress. She is best known for playing the role of Priya Koothrappali in the CBS comedy series The Big Bang Theory. She stars as CIA lawyer Violet Ebner in the Netflix spy-adventure series The Recruit.
Early life and education
Mann was born Aarti Majumdar in Connecticut on March 3, 1978, in a Gujarati Hindu family from Junagadh, Gujarat. "Mann" is a shortened version of her married name.When Mann was still a toddler, she moved with her family, which consisted of her parents, her older sister Kruti and younger brother Nishad, to several places in Pennsylvania. When she was a young child she lived in Pittsburgh, Mt. Lebanon and Wexford before settling in Fox Chapel. Her mother, Vasanti Majumdar, a graduate of University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, still lives in Fox Chapel and is a physician specializing in obstetrics and gynaecology. Mann's father, who was also a physician, died while she was in high school.
Despite Mann having never acted in plays during high school at Shady Side Academy in Fox Chapel, she graduated with a degree in film writing and directing from New York University where she practiced acting.
Career
Mann began acting in the mid-2000s, initially playing minor roles. She uses both Aarti Majumdar and Aarti Mann as her professional names.Mann's brother Nishad is a journalist and her sister Kruti helped influence her decision to switch to acting. Kruti briefly worked as a filmmaker, casting Mann in her sole producer-director effort, The Memsahib, which aired at film festivals in 2006. While filming her scenes, Mann said she "got bit by the bug" to act and enrolled in acting classes in Los Angeles.
Mann appeared in a commercial for Volvo and other roles followed, including a guest appearance of an episode of the web/TV series Quarterlife, which aired. She was a guest star on a 2009 episode of Heroes, and a 2010 episode of The Young and the Restless. Mann was cast in the role of Stephanie for Paging Dr. Freed, a series being considered by USA Network; the network had Mann's character replaced during production, and later chose to not move forward with the series.
Having appeared in single episodes of various television series, Mann had her first recurring role, as Priya Koothrappali, during the 2010 and 2011 seasons of The Big Bang Theory. She continued with guest appearances in single episodes of other series until 2022, when she was part of the inaugural main cast of the Netflix spy series The Recruit, playing CIA lawyer Violet Ebner; as of 2024, a second season is in production.