Lisa Rani Ray (born 4 April 1972)[1] is a Canadian actress. She began her modelling career in India in the early 1990s, appearing for leading Indian brands like Bombay Dyeing and Lakmé. She made her acting debut in 1994 in the film Hanste Khelte. Through her acting career, Ray has demonstrated a penchant for issue-oriented portrayals, most notably in the 2005 Oscar-nominated Canadian film Water and the award-winning South African feature The World Unseen, described by a reviewer as "one of the best-conceived queer films of the past year."[2]
In 2009, Ray was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, an incurable form of blood cancer.[3] She began writing The Yellow Diaries, a blog about her experiences of having cancer.[4] Her writing and columns have since regularly appeared in multiple major publications.[5][6] Ray remains an active advocate of stem-cell therapy[7] and has participated in several successful fundraisers and cancer awareness campaigns.
In 2016, Ray opened an Instagram account dedicated to poetry.[10] In March 2019, Ray participated as a panelist on the 2019 edition of Canada Reads where she advocated for David Chariandy's award-winning second novel, Brother.[11]
Ray's modelling career began when she was "discovered" during a family vacation in India while still in her teens. An advertisement for Bombay Dyeing where she appeared in a black swimsuit opposite Karan Kapoor earned Ray her first taste of public attention.[16][17][18][19] A subsequent meeting with Maureen Wadia, editor of Indian fashion magazine Gladrags, resulted in an iconic swimsuit cover that catapulted Ray to nationwide fame in India. "Most of my most fulfilling professional moments came to me via serendipity", Ray later wrote.[20]
By the time the Gladrags cover broke, Ray was back in Toronto ready to begin university. Her plans were thwarted after a tragic auto accident that would consign her mother to a wheelchair for the rest of her life.[21][22] Ray returned to India and went on to become one of the country's first supermodels, and the face of Lakmé and Bombay Dyeing.[23] Ray would later acknowledge this coinciding of professional triumph and personal tragedy as a recurring theme in her life. "I have come to recognise that every major turning point in my life is preceded by pain", she wrote in Femina in 2016.[21]
After turning down a number of roles,[26] Ray made her Indian Film Industry debut in 2001 with the Hindi film Kasoor, opposite Aftab Shivdasani,[16] in which her voice was dubbed by Divya Dutta, because she could not speak Hindi.[27] In spite of that, her performance received positive reviews.[28] Her work in the film also caught the eye of Deepa Mehta, who cast her in the romantic Indian-Canadian romp Bollywood/Hollywood in 2002.[13]
Realizing that acting was something that she wanted to pursue more seriously, Ray moved to London to concentrate on a career in the performing arts. While there, Ray studied at the Central School of Speech and Drama, the London Centre for Theatre Studies, the Desmond Jones school of Physical Theatre, and BADA. She graduated from the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts (ALRA), in 2004, with a post-graduate degree in acting.[29] While studying, Ray made a conscious effort to not accept any film offers until she had graduated. However, while still at ALRA, she received another call from Deepa Mehta, who made her an offer she simply could not refuse—the lead role of Kalyani in Mehta's much-anticipated, and eventually highly controversial,[30] feature, Water.[29] In the film, Lisa spoke her lines in Hindi, although her voice was dubbed in the final cut.[27] Water released in 2005 to both national and global critical acclaim, with the venerable Roger Ebert describing it as "lovely in the way Satyajit Ray's films are lovely",[31]
After graduation, Ray based herself out of Milan, Paris, and New York from 2004 to 2008, returning to Toronto upon her mother's death in late 2008.[29] In 2007, Ray completed filming for Kill Kill Faster Faster, which is a contemporary film noir inspired by the critically acclaimed novel of the same name, by Joel Rose. She guest-starred in a 2009 episode of the USA Network series Psych,[citation needed] and appeared in Woody Harrelson starrer Canadian-American superhero film Defendor.[citation needed] Also in 2009, she starred in the Deepa and Dilip Mehta comedy Cooking with Stella.
On Christmas in 2009, Ray received a stem cell transplant to treat her rare cancer. In April 2010, she announced she was cancer-free due to the transplant. She gave a candid interview on her personal cancer trauma and surviving it, appearing on the cover of the 2010 anniversary issue of the Indian men's luxury magazine The Man.[33]
Speaking to The Telegraph in 2012, Ray remarked, "I think every film that I’ve done so far has been a turning point because I experimented with each one and grew professionally. The movies I chose, dealt with a lot of thought-provoking subjects.[41]
In 2016, Ray starred in Ram Gopal Varma's Veerappan.[42] She also played a crucial supporting role in 2017’s Dobaara, the official Bollywood adaptation of supernatural horror film Oculus.[43]
Since 2019, Ray has appeared as part of an ensemble cast in the Amazon Prime Video web series Four More Shots Please!.[44] After a successful first season aired in over 200 countries and regions, the series returned for a second season in 2020 and a third season in 2022.[45]
Personal life
On 23 June 2009, Ray was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a cancer of the white blood cells known as plasma cells, which produce antibodies. It is a rare disease.[27][46] In April 2010, she announced that she was cancer-free, after an autologous stem cell transplant using her own stem cells.[47][48] As multiple myeloma is an incurable disease, Ray is not completely cured of the disease.[49]
In February 2012, Ray announced her engagement to management consultant Jason Dehni.[50] On 20 October 2012, Ray and Dehni (then a banking executive) were married in California's Napa Valley.[51]
In September 2018, Ray announced that she and her husband became parents to twin daughters via surrogacy, in June 2018.[52]
^ abLiam Lacey (12 September 2002). "Just a pinch of spice". The Globe and Mail. Canada. Archived from the original on 2 October 2013. Retrieved 10 May 2013.
^Ashwini Deshmukh (28 March 2009). "Lisa Ray 'bares it all'". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 12 October 2020. Retrieved 17 April 2016.
^Sujata Assomull (14 November 1998). "My Den – Lisa Ray". Indian Express Newspapers. Archived from the original on 13 August 2009. Retrieved 18 November 2008.
^Braun, Liz (7 November 2008). "Lisa Ray shines in the spotlight". Toronto Sun. Archived from the original on 12 July 2012. Retrieved 18 November 2008.
^Billan, Rumeet; Professor, ContributorPresident Partner (30 August 2013). "Lisa Ray: A Story of Hope". HuffPost. Archived from the original on 11 December 2019. Retrieved 11 December 2019. {{cite web}}: |first2= has generic name (help)
