PURVA'S BIO

In films, Purva is best known for her starring role in the cult classic, American Desi, for which she received an Ammy Award nomination for Best Actress in a Feature Film. Purva also starred in the award winning film, Cosmopolitan, which was critically acclaimed at numerous film festivals and premiered on the PBS Independent Lens series. Purva’s other films include the internationally released Green Card Fever, Universal Pictures’ The Emperor’s Club, Wings of Hope, and Ball and Chain. Purva has also starred in numerous short films, including This Moment, Eastern Son, Good Thing, Vasarma’s Lovers, Hole and Bananas.

Purva has worked extensively in television drama and comedy. Guest starring roles include Boston Legal, Alias, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, The Drew Carey Show, ER, Strong Medicine, Fastlane, and an award-winning episode of The West Wing.

On stage, Purva appeared in East is East (Manhattan Theatre Club & The New Group), Kingdom of Lost Songs (Lincoln Center Directors Lab), Rice Boy (The Mark Taper Forum Taper Too), Merchant on Venice (Mark Taper Forum, East West Players, Cornerstone, and The Lark Theatre), Bad Women (The Talking Band) and numerous productions with Target Margin Theatre including These Very Serious Jokes, Sonoma, The 5 Hysterical Girls Theorem, and The Seagull.

Purva is Artistic Director and Founder of Disha Theatre, a theatre company based in New York.

Purva is Executive Producer and Lead Actress on Shyam Madiraju's new feature film, Broken

Purva lives and works in both New York City and Los Angeles. Her education and training includes Williams College, The British American Drama Academy in London, and The Public Theatre in New York.