Trivia

Daughter of actors Madhur Jaffrey and Saeed Jaffrey. Her parents were born in India. Her mother was also a food and travel writer.

Graduated from Vassar College with a High Honors degree in Chinese Language and Literature.

Daughter of actress and cookbook author Madhur Jaffrey and actor Saeed Jaffrey. Stepfather Sanford Allen, a violinist, was the first African American musician in the New York Philharmonic.

Danced as a child with the Joffrey ballet at City Center in NYC.

Acted with her son Cassius, in Jonathan Demme's The Truth about Charlie and The Manchurian Candidate. And with Cassius and her daughter Jamila in Raising Helen.

Improvised the entire baseball bat scene, as Nilma, in Garry Marshall's Raising Helen. Her unintended curse words in Hindi, Spanish and Chinese had to be edited out of the scene.

Cannot speak any Hindi, understands very little.

Married to journalist Francis Wilkinson, a former political consultant who is on the editorial board of Bloomberg View.

Made her acting debut at 17 in Wallace Shawn's, Marie and Bruce, at the Public Theatre with Bob Balaban, Louise Lasser and Griffin Dunne.

Grew up in Greenwich Village, where she attended PS-41. Later attended and graduated from Nightingale-Bamford School.

Mother of Cassius Kumar Wilkinson and Jamila Wilkinson