Poorna Jagannathan is an American producer and actress of Indian descent. She is best known for her portrayal of Safar Khan in the HBO drama miniseries The Night Of, as well for her role as Nalini Vishwakumar in the Netflix teen comedy series Never Have I Ever by Mindy Kaling. She also co-conceived, produced and acted in the play Nirbhaya, written and directed by Yael Farber. Dealing with sexual violence, the play won the prestigious 2013 Amnesty International Award and was called by The Telegraph as the "One of the most powerful pieces of theater you'll ever see". It's also considered one of the most impactful moments in India's history of women's empowerment.

Early life
Her father, G. Jagannathan, was an Indian diplomat. Poorna was born on December 22, 1972, in Tunis, Tunisia and grew up in Pakistan, Ireland, India, Brazil and Argentina. She speaks Tamil, Hindi, English, Spanish and Portuguese. She attended the University of Brasília before graduating in journalism from the University of Maryland, College Park. On a scholarship, she began a Master of Fine Arts in acting at the Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University. Although she dropped out after the first year, she continued to study acting under her mentor, Elizabeth Kemp, whom she met there. Poorna went on to train at The Barrow Group where she is currently a board and company member and cites The Barrow Group as the place she learned how to become a professional, working actor. Before her career as an actor, Poorna spent 15 years working in advertising at agencies like TBWA\Worldwide, Ogilvy, and Deutsch Inc. before starting her own consultancy, Cowgirls & Indians.