Actress Bollywood: Deepika Padukone (Hindi: दीपिका पडुकोण; born 5 January 1986) is an Indian actress and a former model. She appears mostly in Hindi as well as Tamil and Kannada language films. Born to Badminton player Prakash Padukone, she chose to become an actress and not pursue a career in sports.

Padukone made her acting debut in the 2006 Kannada film Aishwarya. The following year, she made her Hindi film debut in the blockbuster Om Shanti Om opposite Shah Rukh Khan, which earned her the Filmfare Best Female Debut Award. It also remains her biggest commercial success so far. She subsequently appeared in films such as Love Aaj Kal (2009) and Housefull (2010). While the former earned her a Filmfare nomination in the Best Actress category, the latter emerged as a commercial success.

In addition to acting, Padukone is also the ambassador of prominent brands such as Tissot, Sony Cybershot, Nescafe and Kingfisher Airlines.

Padukone was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. Her family moved to Bangalore, Karnataka, India, when she was eleven months old. Padukone is of Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmin origin, and her mother tongue is Konkani. Her father, Prakash Padukone, is a retired badminton player of international repute, and her mother is a travel agent. Padukone also has a younger sister, Anisha, born on 2 February 1991.

Padukone attended Sophia High School in Bangalore, and completed her pre-university studies at Mount Carmel College Bangalore. While in high school she played badminton at the state level. However, she was not keen on pursuing a career as a badminton player. During the time of her film debut she was enrolled with the Indira Gandhi National Open University in Bachelors of Arts (Sociology).

In March 2008, Padukone began dating Ranbir Kapoor, her co-star from the film Bachna Ae Haseeno (2008). After her high profile break up with Kapoor in November 2009, Padukone has decided to keep her personal life away from media attention.