Jacqueline Fernandez

Jacqueline Fernandez, born in Manama, Bahrain, is basically a globetrotter from the get-go. Her dad, Elroy, hails from Sri Lanka (Sinhalese-Catholic roots), while her mom, Kim, is Malaysian. Toss in two brothers and an older sister, and you’ve got a solid mix of cultures under one roof. The family packed up and moved to Bahrain in the '80s thanks to the Lankan civil unrest, so that's where Jacqueline spent her childhood. After finishing school in Bahrain, she snagged a scholarship and jetted off to Australia, landing at the University of Sydney to study Media and Communications. The girl’s got serious wanderlust—she even picked up Spanish at Berlitz and brushed up her French and Arabic. Not your average classroom routine, right? Fast forward to 2006, and she’s crowned Miss Sri Lanka for Miss Universe, making her country proud and grabbing the spotlight. That win opened doors, and soon she was anchoring Lanka Business Report back home. But, you know how the story goes—Bollywood comes calling. She heads to Mumbai, originally for modeling, but pretty soon she’s starring in Aladin (2009) alongside legends like Amitabh Bachchan and Sanjay Dutt. Not a bad entry, honestly. Her debut got noticed, and before long, she’s back on screen in Jaane Kahan Se Aayi Hai (2010), playing an alien looking for love. Riteish Deshmukh, her first co-star, pops up again as her leading man. Oh, and Farah Khan guest-stars, because why not? She even made a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo in Housefull (2010), directed by Sajid Khan. So yeah, from Bahrain to Bollywood, Jacqueline's journey is anything but boring.