Archie Panjabi, who was born Archana Kaur Punjabi in West London, is a British actress of Sindhi descent. Archie spent a portion of her childhood in Mumbai where she attended school in Churchgate and in Nariman Point. Even as a child, Panjabi dreamt of one day becoming an actress and coming back to her native town to shoot a film there. After earning her degree in Management Studies at Brunel University in West London in 1996, she wanted to pursue a doctorate degree in management, but then her acting career began to pick up just then.

Panjabi made her feature film debut as the soccer-mad teenage tomboy Meenah Khan in the BAFTA-award-winning 1999 British dramedy East is East, which received a standing ovation in the Cannes Film Festival. In 2002, she would appear in another Golden Globe nominated comedy-drama, Bend It Like Beckham where she played Pinky Bhamra, the bride-to-be sister of Jess (Parminder Nagra). In the 2005 Oscar-winning film The Constant Gardner, Archie portrayed Ghita Pearson, the close friend of murder victim Tessa Quayle (Rachel Weisz). In the same year, she would appear as the title character in the critically-acclaimed film, Yasmin, written by Academy-Award-winning screenplay writer Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire).

In 2007, Panjabi was cast alongside Angelina Jolie in A Mighty Heart, a film which chronicled the terrifying and unforgettable ordeal of Wall Street journalist Daniel Pearl who was kidnapped and murdered in Karachi, Pakistan in 2002. In the film, she played fellow reporter Asra Q. Nonami, who aided Mariane Pearl (Jolie) in the search for her missing husband. On television, Archie is known as Rita Dhillon in the BBC surreal black comedy series Grease Monkeys and as Megan Sharma in the British fantasy drama Sea of Souls. In 2009, she was tapped for a series regular role in the CBS drama The Good Wife opposite Julianna Margulies. Described by the critics as being one of the most unique, sophisticated and beautifully drawn characters on TV ever, Archie’s EMMY Award- winning performance of the provocative KALINDA SHARMA on CBS’s hit show THE GOOD WIFE, continues to be a fan favorite with viewers and critics alike. In 2011, Archie was named as One of the Eight Master Performers Who turn Television into Art by THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE. In 2013 Archie was nominated for a Golden Globe.