Leah Khambata

Leah Khambata is an actress/singer-songwriter/filmmaker of Parsi Indian origin who has acted and performed her music across the USA, UK, and India. As a child, she grew up around a family who had an immense love for the arts and she acted in several musicals and trained in Ballet and Modern Dance alongside her schooling. She then graduated from Wesleyan University in Connecticut with a double major in Film and Psychology during which time consistently acted in theatre productions. After working in film production in NYC, she got her MBA from Cornell University during which time she associate produced the TV Pilot of "Surina & Mel" (starring Melanie Chandra, directed by Abi Varghese) acted in three short films in NYC, starred in two Off Off Broadway plays and also studied acting at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London while simultaneously playing the lead in a play at the Pleasance Theatre in London. After Cornell, she wrote/produced/acted in her award-winning short film called "(t)here" which starred Zenobia Shroff (from "The Big Sick") as well, and then also starred in two TV pilots ("Here We Go", "For the Love of Desi") and the short film, "Skip School". "(t)here" screened at a number of festivals across the globe. Its world premiere was at the Ojai Film Festival and NYC premiere at HBO's South Asian International Film Festival. Leah's musical style is self-reflective, soothing and as she likes to call it "straight from the heart." Her original songs are on Spotify/Apple/Streaming Services and two of her music videos (for "Higher At Last" and "Something Still Here") premiered on VH1 India in February 2020. She performed an online concert for Rolling Stone India. In April 2020, she was also 1 out of only 10 people selected from hundreds of applicants for an exclusive Workshop led by the ABC Network Casting Department as part of their initiative to discover/develop South Asian talent. In June 2020, her short film "CoronaCramped" which she made for Soho House members' "made from home" film competition placed 6th worldwide. From a young age, Leah has had a knack for picking up different accents and has performed in American, British, and Bombay accents. English is her first language but she speaks Hindi and a bit of Italian as well. She plays the Acoustic Guitar, Ukulele, Piano and is Reiki certified as well. Leah continues to act in and create content that bridges the gap between the East and the West. She credits the film "Titanic" as being the film that made her decide, at the age of six, to go into the film industry, because even at that young age, she really resonated with it and was moved to tears. To this day it is still her all-time favourite.