Padma Lakshmi is an actress, model and TV show host who was born in India before moving to the United States and working in the entertainment industry. Now, she is the host of cooking TV shows like “Top Chef” and “Taste of the Nation.” She was previously married to author Salman Rushdie and is an author in her own right with the release of her cookbooks and memoir.
Lakshmi was born on September 1, 1970 in India. At the beginning of her hosting career, she hosted a show called “Padma’s Passport,” was in a documentary series called “Planet Food” and co-hosted “Domenicia In.”
In 2006, Lakshmi started hosting the Bravo cooking competition show "Top Chef" during the shows second season and has continued to host for the following years. She also is the executive producer of the show. In 2021, she created her own cooking show on Hulu called “Taste of the Nation.”
Lakshmi is also the author behind two cookbooks “Easy Exotic” and “Tangy, Tart, Hot & Sweet” and the memoir “Love, Loss, and What We Ate.” She also wrote a children’s book called “Tomatoes for Neela” and wrote “The Encyclopedia of Spices & Herbs.”
Lakshmi also has her own jewelry line that is sold at Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom called "The Padma Collection." She also has a line of décor and culinary products.
Beyond her business ventures, Lakshmi is also co-founder of the Endometriosis Foundation of America, which she started in 2009 with Advanced Gynecological Surgeon Tamer Seckin, MD. She is also an ambassador for the United Nations Development Programme and is an ambassador for the American Civil Liberties Union.
Lakshmi was married to author Salman Rushdie in 2004, but the two divorced a few years later in 2007.
After her divorce, she started dating Adam Dell on-and-off beginning in 2009. Lakshmi gave birth to herdaughter Krishna Thea Lakshmi-Dell in 2010. At the time, she did not know who the father was, but it was later confirmed to be Dell.
