Lisa Rani Ray (Bengali pronunciation:[lisarae̯]; born 4 April 1972) is an Indo-Canadian actor, model, entrepreneur, writer, and public speaker. She began her modelling career in India in the early 1990s, appearing for leading Indian brands including like Bombay Dyeing and Lakmé. Through her acting career, Ray has demonstrated a penchant for issue-oriented portrayals, most notably in the 2005 Academy Award–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."
In 2009, Ray was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, an incurable form of blood cancer. She began writing The Yellow Diaries, a blog about her experiences of having cancer. Her writing and columns have since regularly appeared in multiple major publications. Ray remains an active advocate of stem-cell therapy and has participated in several successful fundraisers and cancer awareness campaigns.
In 2019, HarperCollins India published her debut memoir Close to the Bone, which won the Laadli Media and Advertising Award for Gender Sensitivity in 2020.The book was released in North America by Doubleday Canada (a Penguin Random House imprint) on 3 November 2020. HarperCollins India has since acquired the next three works of Lisa Ray in an exclusive world-rights deal.
In 2026, Ray co-founded NuHer, a science-backed women's midlife and menopause clinic based in Mumbai, alongside Binoy Khimji, Zaheer Khan, and Vikas Shah. She continues to act, most recently in Amazon Prime Video's Four More Shots Please! (2019–2025) and A.R. Rahman's 99 Songs (2021).[67][68]
In 2016, Ray opened an Instagram account dedicated to poetry.
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. 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.
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. Ray returned to India and went on to become one of the country's first supermodels, and the face of Lakmé and Bombay Dyeing. 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.
As one of India's most successful cover models, Ray would subsequently lend her face to iconic global brands such as L’Oréal, MasterCard, De Beers and Rado. ] Her ambassadorship with the Swiss watchmaker Rado, beginning in 2000, has spanned over a decade and stands as one of the longest celebrity brand endorsements in India. A Times of India poll named her the "ninth most beautiful woman of the millennium," the only model in the top ten. She co-anchored the TV show Star Biz on Star Movies and appeared in a music video for Afreen Afreen, a ghazal written by Javed Akhtar, and composed and performed by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.
After turning down a number of roles, Ray made her Indian Film Industry debut in 2001 with the Hindi film Kasoor, opposite Aftab Shivdasani, in which her voice was dubbed by Divya Dutta, because she could not speak Hindi. In spite of that, her performance received positive reviews. 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.
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. 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, feature, Water. In the film, Lisa spoke her lines in Hindi, although her voice was dubbed in the final cut. 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",
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. 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.
Appearing at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival in support of the film, Ray revealed that she had been diagnosed with multiple myeloma.
2010s
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.
In 2012, Ray began hosting season two of Top Chef Canada, Food Network Canada's highest rated series. The season premiered in March 2012.
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.
In 2016, Ray starred in Ram Gopal Varma's Veerappan. She also played a crucial supporting role in 2017’s Dobaara, the official Bollywood adaptation of supernatural horror film Oculus.
In 2019, Ray was a celebrity panellist on CBC Radio's book-debate series Canada Reads, championing David Chariandy's novel Brother.
Since 2019, Ray has appeared as part of an ensemble cast in the Amazon Prime Video web series Four More Shots Please!. 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. and a fourth and final season in 2025.
In 2021, Ray appeared in 99 Songs, an Indian Hindi-language musical romance film co-written and produced by A. R. Rahman.[68]
Writing
Close to the Bone
Close to the Bone, Ray's debut memoir, was published by HarperCollins India in May 2019. The book chronicles her entry into the Indian entertainment industry at sixteen, her relationship with her Bengali father and Polish mother, life on movie sets, her battle with eating disorders, her diagnosis with multiple myeloma at thirty-seven, and her spiritual journey.
The North American edition was published by Doubleday Canada, a Penguin Random House imprint, on 3 November 2020.
The book received strong critical reception and won the Laadli Media and Advertising Award for Gender Sensitivity at the 10th edition of the awards in 2020. Following the memoir's success, HarperCollins India acquired the next three works of Lisa Ray in an exclusive world-rights deal.
Poetry
Ray is a published poet whose work explores themes of identity and what she has described as "a life of no fixed address." Her poems have appeared in literary publications including The Punch Magazine.
Entrepreneurship
NuHer (2026–present)
In 2026, Ray co-founded NuHer, a science-backed women's midlife and menopause clinic based in Mumbai, with co-founders Binoy Khimji, Zaheer Khan, and Vikas Shah — the team behind the wellness initiative NuHealth. NuHer provides integrated care for women navigating perimenopause and menopause, with a medical panel including Dr Reina Punj, Dr Kajal Parikh, Dr Priyanka Mehta, Dr Anuya Manerkar, Priyanka Kapoor, and Parinaz Agha.
Ray has cited her own experience of chemotherapy-induced menopause at age 37 — a consequence of her multiple myeloma treatment — as a founding motivation for the clinic.
NuHer's associated podcast, Is It Hot In Here?, hosted by Ray, launched in 2026 and features conversations with public figures, medical experts, and community voices around perimenopause, menopause, and midlife women's health.
Public speaking
Ray has more than fifteen years of experience as a public and motivational speaker across international platforms. She is represented globally by the London Speaker Bureau and in India by Exceed Entertainment. Her speaking engagements span keynote addresses and corporate wellness engagements for organisations including Goldman Sachs, EY, YPO (Young Presidents' Organization) and EO (Entrepreneurs' Organization), as well as philanthropic engagements for hospitals and cancer-care institutions.
Advocacy
Cancer advocacy
Ray has been an active fundraiser and public advocate for stem-cell therapy and research, including work on behalf of the McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine at Toronto's University Health Network, and fundraising toward the establishment of the first research chair for multiple myeloma at Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto.
In 2013, Ray designed a capsule saree collection with the Indian label Satya Paul, titled Ray of Hope, with proceeds directed to cancer charities including multiple myeloma research at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. She has served as honorary co-chair for Blood Services Canada, and has been the face of the HDFC Cancer Care Campaign in India. She also launched a limited-edition fragrance, Jasmine of India, with the Canadian social enterprise The 7 Virtues. Ray was also the face of a widely-covered style campaign photographed by musician-photographer Bryan Adams.
Women's wellness advocacy
Ray has been a leading Indian voice on midlife women's health, particularly perimenopause and menopause awareness. Through NuHer and its associated podcast *Is It Hot In Here?*, she has advocated for expanded medical training on menopause in India, greater public conversation around midlife women's health, and access to hormone therapy and holistic care.
Honours and recognition
Ninth Most Beautiful Woman of the Millennium — Times of India poll (only model in the top ten)
Voice Achievers Award (2009) — for cancer advocacy
Laadli Media and Advertising Award for Gender Sensitivity (2020) — for Close to the Bone
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. In April 2010, she announced that she was cancer-free, after an autologous stem cell transplant using her own stem cells. As multiple myeloma is an incurable disease, Ray is not completely cured of the disease.
In February 2012, Ray announced her engagement to Lebanese fintech founder Jason Dehni. On 20 October 2012, Ray and Dehni were married in California's Napa Valley.
In September 2018, Ray announced that she and her husband became parents to twin daughters via surrogacy, in June 2018.
123Liam 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.
