Janina Gavankar

American actress (born 1980)

Janina Zione Gavankar (/dʒ//ə/'/n//iː//n//ə// //ɡ//ə/'/v//ɑː//ŋ//k//ər/; born November 29, 1980) is an American actress and musician. She is trained as a pianist, vocalist, and orchestral percussionist, and she majored in theatre at the University of Illinois Chicago. Her roles include Eva “Papi” Torres on Showtime’s The L Word, Shiva on The League, Leigh Turner on The Gates, Luna Garza on HBO's True Blood, McKenna Hall on The CW's Arrow, and Diana Thomas on FOX's Sleepy Hollow. In marketing, she also played "Ms. Dewey", a personified search engine and virtual assistant for Microsoft.

Gavankar has acted in theatre, film, television, and online. Her most notable roles include Iden Versio, a canon Star Wars character and the protagonist of Star Wars: Battlefront II; shapeshifter Luna Garza in True Blood, Papi in The L Word; Ms. Dewey, the personification of a Microsoft live search engine; and Shiva, the namesake of the sought after trophy on The League. She regularly appears in Funny or Die shorts. In 2006, she joined the cast of The L Word as a series regular and shot all of the clips used for Ms. Dewey. In 2008, Gavankar appeared in the TV series Stargate Atlantis, Grey's Anatomy, NCIS, My Boys, and Factory. In 2009, she appeared in the TV shows The Cleaner, Dollhouse, Three Rivers, and The League, as well as indie films, Men, Interrupted, Indian Gangster, and Quantum Quest: A Cassini Space Odyssey. Gavankar provided the voice of Nikki in Quantum Quest. She landed another lead role in The Gates, since cancelled, on ABC. She appears on CW's Arrow as a vice squad police officer and brief girlfriend to Oliver Queen. Gavankar is an admitted gamer and has appeared on, as well as co hosted, G4 TV's Attack of the Show!, Epileptic Gaming's Up All Night, where she helped review Rock Band, Burnout Paradise, and Army of Two. In 2011, Gavankar became a series regular in HBO's True Blood as a public school teacher and shapeshifter, Luna Garza, who gets romantically involved with one of the main characters of the series. Her indie film, Satellite of Love, premiered at the Dallas International Film Festival in 2012, and her 2012 indie I'm Afraid of Virginia Wolf is currently in post production. On December 20, 2012, Gavankar was the last person interviewed for the now cancelled Attack of the Show!, which aired on G4 TV. On August 3, 2013, Gavankar landed a role as a witch named Qetsiyah in the fifth season of The Vampire Diaries. She guest starred in the third season of Husbands. In 2014, she starred as Amita in the video game, Far Cry 4. She also played Detective Meredith Bose on The Mysteries of Laura from 2014 to 2016. She starred as Iden Versio, the main character in the campaign mode of the 2017 Electronic Arts video game, Star Wars Battlefront II. In 2018, she appeared in two films. Blindspotting premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and The Vanishing of Sidney Hall was distributed by A24. In late 2019, Gavankar had a supporting role in the new Apple TV+ series, The Morning Show. Starting in 2021, Gavankar had a starring role as the antagonist in seasons 2 & 3 of the ABC hit show, Big Sky, playing the sibling in a mafia family.

Gavankar returned to music with a cover of Kanye West's "Love Lockdown". Gavankar's former all female singing group, Endera, was signed to Cash Money Records Universal Records. She collaborated on a project for a song called "Tell Me What" in India with Pratichee Mohapatra of Viva, Deep, and Navraaz. She has had songs licensed to films and television and has sung and played marimba on film scores. Gavankar was featured in Russian artist Ella Leya's music video for "Wish I Could", in the music video by San Francisco based band Recliner for their single "Float Away", as well as the music video for Manu Narayan's band Darunam. In August 2012, she released the single for her upcoming EP, entitled Waiting for Godot, and in November, Billboard premiered the official music video. It went on to win numerous film festival awards. While in high school, Gavankar auditioned for the front ensemble of the Phantom Regiment Drum and Bugle Corps of Rockford, Illinois. Before hearing whether she had made the corps, she was accepted for the Yale School of Drama's summer camp and went there. "I fell in love with drum corps when I was 13 years old", Gavankar has stated, and remains a strong fan of the activity. When she heard the Martin Garrix/Usher collaboration, "Don't Look Down", she had the idea of performing it as marching music. With assistance from Drum Corps International, she contacted the Jersey Surf Drum and Bugle Corps and arranger Colin Bell. She went into the studios in New York with fifty members of Jersey Surf and recorded the music video "Don't Look Down #JustAddDrumCorps Edition" that was released in April 2015. On May 20, 2015, Gavankar performed a percussion duet at Carnegie Hall with Questlove for the Best Buddies charity benefit.

Gavankar was the first actress to use Twitter, signing up on Richard Branson's computer on Necker Island in 2006. Gavankar was the personification of Microsoft's interactive search engine Ms. Dewey. In 2011, she created a free template for actors and artists to help them control their online presence and in 2012, spoke at the Suits and Spooks Conference about how she discovered a solution for data challenges faced by actors through the use of open source tools. In 2017, she launched a private discussion forum for members of the games industry. In 2018, she produced the first narrative film to use the Arri Alexa LF. Gavankar is a first round investor in ClassPass.

In 2008, Gavankar was nominated for an Asian Excellence Award. In 2012, Gavankar received the Gravity Summit Award for Excellence in Social Media.

Year Title Role Notes 2001 Why Is God Mina Short film 2003 Dark Kaya 2004 Barbershop 2: Back in Business Field Reporter 2005 Just Speak Melody Short film 2005 Cup of My Blood Iona 2008 Shattered! Maria 2009 Indian Gangster Geeta Short film 2010 Quantum Quest: A Cassini Space Odyssey NikiVoice 2010 Men, Interrupted Cece Twain Short film 2011 Ms. Rime 2011 Victory or Death Selah Short film 2012 Satellite of Love Michelle 2013 Who's Afraid of Vagina Wolf? Katia Amour / The Stud 2013 Detective Hostetler Short film 2014 Code Academy Madame Counselor 2014 Think Like a Man Too Vanessa 2016 Pee wee's Big Holiday Party Guest 2017 The Vanishing of Sidney Hall Gina 2018 Blindspotting Val 2018 The White Orchid Tina 2020 The Way Back Angela 2020 Stucco J Short filmAlso director, writer and producer 2021 Encounter Piya 2024 Borderlands Commander Knoxx TBA Cortex Sama Post production

Year Title Role Notes 2004 Strong Medicine Nurse Juni Episode: "Omissions" 2007–09 Eva "Papi" Torres 12 episodes 2008 My Boys Terri Episode: "The Transitioning" 2008 Stargate Atlantis Sergeant "Dusty" Mehra Episode: "Whispers" 2008 Grey's Anatomy Intern Lisa 2 episodes 2009 NCIS Angela Lopez Episode: "Caged" 2009 Dollhouse Lynn Episode: "Epitaph One" 2009 Usha Patel 2 episodes 2009 Three Rivers Ada Rahimi Episode: "Place of Life" 2009–15 Shiva 10 episodes 2010 Leigh Turner 13 episodes 2011 Traffic Light Alexa 3 episodes 2011–13 True Blood Luna Garza 25 episodes 2012 Kerry Episode: "My Dinner with Phil" 2012 Choke. Kick. Girl: The Series Katie Episode: "Hammerfist, Knee, Guillotine Fiend" 2013 Love Is Dead Marisol Rajagopal Television film 2013 Arrow Detective McKenna Hall 4 episodes 2013 Hannah Episode: "The Birds of Granby" 2013 Just Face It Ava Miniseries 2013 Husbands Kajal Episode: "I Dream of Cleaning" 2013 Qetsiyah / Tessa 4 episodes 2014 Nikki & Nora: The N&N Files Lea Sadina 4 episodes 2014 Garfunkel and Oates Dr. Sharma Episode: "Third Member" 2014–16 Meredith Bose 38 episodes 2015 Sabrina Television film 2017 Sleepy Hollow Diana Thomas 13 episodes 2018 Hell's Kitchen Herself (guest) Episode: "Stars Heating Up Hell" 2019 Relics and Rarities Mumeé 2 episodes 2019 You're The Worst Rachel Episode: "Zero Eggplants" 2019 Better Things Nikki 2 episodes 2019–present The Morning Show Alison Namazi 16 episodes 2020 Space Force Hannah Howard Episode: "EDISON JAYMES" 2020–present The Mighty Ones Kensington Voice, 23 episodes 2021–22 Big Sky Ren 18 episodes 2022 The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window Meredith 2 episodes 2022 Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi Pav ti Voice, episode: "Life and Death" 2023 Never Have I Ever Akshara Episodes: " wrecked my future" and " gone to prom"