Photo of Viji Nathan

Viji Nathan

Viji Nathan grew up in India. At age 13, she acted in plays on All India Radio. She represented her school in monoacting competitions across the country. She was considered to be great at two things: Math and Acting. Take a wild guess as to which was encouraged and which vehemently discouraged in her Indian home. She satisfied her creative urge by taking refuge in the Dramatics Club of the Engineering School to which her proud parents sent her.

For more than eight years Viji played the "Crazed/Crazy Indian mom" in plays written by young Indian-Americans in the San Francisco Bay Area. She also played a mother-in-law in a British play that was extremely well-received. Whatever the story, the Indian mom was always a huge hit with audiences. Now she started getting calls from film-makers who needed an Indian actress 'of a certain age'. In 2004, NBC had a pilot, "Nevermind Nirvana", and Viji got many fan-letters saying "Go to NBC! You're one funny Indian mom!!". So she drove down to an open casting call, and was surprised that without an agent she made it to Producers for the role. Casting said they "loved" her, but she was new. This enthused her to leave her bank-job and chase her dream in Hollywood.
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