Movies

Samantha Ruth Prabhu (born 28 April 1987) is an Indian actress who primarily works in Telugu and Tamil films. One of the highest-paid South Indian actresses, she is the recipient of several accolades, including four Filmfare Awards South, and six South Indian International Movie Awards. She has established herself as one of the leading actresses in Telugu and Tamil cinema.

After a brief stint as a model while pursuing a degree in commerce, Samantha made her acting debut in the Telugu romance film Ye Maaya Chesave (2010), winning the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut – South. She became the second actress to win both the Filmfare Award for Best Actress – Tamil and Best Actress – Telugu in the same year, for her performances in the 2012 films Neethaane En Ponvasantham and Eega, respectively. Over the next few years, she played the leading lady in top-grossing androcentric films such as Dookudu (2011), Seethamma Vakitlo Sirimalle Chettu (2012), Attarintiki Daredi (2013), Kaththi (2014), Theri (2016), 24 (2016), Mersal (2017), and Rangasthalam (2018). Her performance in A Aa (2016) won Samantha her fourth Filmfare Award, and she gained further praise for her performances in Mahanati (2018), Super Deluxe (2019), and Majili (2019), and the Amazon Prime Video thriller series The Family Man (2021). The last of these earned her a Filmfare OTT Award.

In addition to acting, Samantha has hosted the talk show Sam Jam in 2020. She is the founder of Pratyusha Support and Saaki World. She was married to actor Naga Chaitanya from 2017 to 2021.

Early life
Samantha was born on 28 April 1987 to a Telugu father, Joseph Prabhu and a malayali mother, Ninette Prabhu. She was born and brought up in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, as the youngest child of the family, with two elder brothers Jonathan and David, whilst becoming fluent in the Tamil language. Despite her mixed background, she has cited herself as a Tamilian. As a part of her education, Samantha was schooled at Holy Angels Anglo Indian Higher Secondary School and then completed a degree in commerce at Stella Maris College, Chennai. Towards the end of her undergraduate degree she became involved in modelling, notably working with Naidu Hall, through which she was first spotted by filmmaker Ravi Varman.