Bio
Annapurna Sriram, Nashville-born actor, writer, and director, landed her first agent at thirteen in Nashville, Tennessee. Her earliest jobs included acting in community theater, music videos, and educational videos before she attended Nashville School of the Arts.
After turning eighteen, Annapurna left Nashville and headed to Rutgers’ Mason Gross School of the Arts, where she studied for a year at London at Shakespeare’s Globe Theater, and was chosen to perform as part of the Sam Wanamaker Festival. That year, her immersion into classical texts laid the ground-work for her understanding and interest in text structure and her fluency in working on new plays.
Annapurna has spent more than half her life acting in projects of every size– from numerous recurring roles in network programs -- including five episodes as Odette on The Blacklist (NBC) and three episodes of Billions (Showtime) -- and independent films, to off-Broadway theater, award-winning Virtual Reality projects, podcast narratives, and audible books. Her recent projects were created through a collaborative process allowing for exploration and expansive performances by Anna.
Recent stage credits include the origination of “Reshma” in Jesse Eisenberg’s “The Spoils,” which was directed by Scott Elliot for The New Group and later reprising that role on the West End in London and Wallace Shawn’s United States premiere of “Evening at the Talkhouse.”
2019 has been a banner year for Annapurna, as two of her projects have been getting international attention. Her performance in the 2019 film Feral was her first lead role in a narrative feature film, and after its premiere at the Sarasota Film Festival, the film has been featured at the Sidewalk Film Festival, Bushwick Festival (where she won the Best Actor Award), and The Montreal Festival du Nouveau Cinema World Film Festival garnering excellent accolades from critics for her work. Her short film, Dom, won the Sidewalk Film Festival as “Best Narrative Short,” and has been programmed at the Brooklyn Film Festival, LES Film Festival, Indie Memphis, and the Cucalorus Film Festival.
“Art is about braving danger,” says Annapurna. “If you look at the history of performers, you’ll find dangers in theater, literature, and music… those narratives that are the most influential are the most dangerous to tell. The moment any style of storytelling becomes safe is the moment it loses interest. That jagged threat of failure is the honest edge which makes the story worth sharing, and getting rid of those honest edges hurts society as a whole. If I am to do my best work, I have to do so with a degree of risk.”
For Annapurna, honoring that danger in work means not relying on tropes, and working on stories that have fleshed-out characters that aren’t stereotyped. She considers herself an “American performer” who bypasses productions looking to typecast her.
Annapurna resides in New York City, where she is currently working on films as writer, director and actor.
Upcoming projects include:
Tenderly (short) directed by Emma Kanter starring alongside Francois Arnaud
COUP! (Web Series) Directed by Matt Esolda and Brian Goodheart
Continue (Feature Film) Directed by Nadine Croker starring alongside Nadine Croker and Analeigh Tipton
SongBird (Short) Directed by Annapurna Sriram shot on 16mm
Management: Jeremy Berney | jberney@mosaicla.com
Peter Kousakis | pkousakis@mosaicla.com
Public Relations: Sheri DiGiovanna | Sheri@thepressoffice.com | 615-260-7597
Annapurna Sriram, Nashville-born actor, writer, and director, landed her first agent at thirteen in Nashville, Tennessee. Her earliest jobs included acting in community theater, music videos, and educational videos before she attended Nashville School of the Arts.
After turning eighteen, Annapurna left Nashville and headed to Rutgers’ Mason Gross School of the Arts, where she studied for a year at London at Shakespeare’s Globe Theater, and was chosen to perform as part of the Sam Wanamaker Festival. That year, her immersion into classical texts laid the ground-work for her understanding and interest in text structure and her fluency in working on new plays.
Annapurna has spent more than half her life acting in projects of every size– from numerous recurring roles in network programs -- including five episodes as Odette on The Blacklist (NBC) and three episodes of Billions (Showtime) -- and independent films, to off-Broadway theater, award-winning Virtual Reality projects, podcast narratives, and audible books. Her recent projects were created through a collaborative process allowing for exploration and expansive performances by Anna.
Recent stage credits include the origination of “Reshma” in Jesse Eisenberg’s “The Spoils,” which was directed by Scott Elliot for The New Group and later reprising that role on the West End in London and Wallace Shawn’s United States premiere of “Evening at the Talkhouse.”
2019 has been a banner year for Annapurna, as two of her projects have been getting international attention. Her performance in the 2019 film Feral was her first lead role in a narrative feature film, and after its premiere at the Sarasota Film Festival, the film has been featured at the Sidewalk Film Festival, Bushwick Festival (where she won the Best Actor Award), and The Montreal Festival du Nouveau Cinema World Film Festival garnering excellent accolades from critics for her work. Her short film, Dom, won the Sidewalk Film Festival as “Best Narrative Short,” and has been programmed at the Brooklyn Film Festival, LES Film Festival, Indie Memphis, and the Cucalorus Film Festival.
“Art is about braving danger,” says Annapurna. “If you look at the history of performers, you’ll find dangers in theater, literature, and music… those narratives that are the most influential are the most dangerous to tell. The moment any style of storytelling becomes safe is the moment it loses interest. That jagged threat of failure is the honest edge which makes the story worth sharing, and getting rid of those honest edges hurts society as a whole. If I am to do my best work, I have to do so with a degree of risk.”
For Annapurna, honoring that danger in work means not relying on tropes, and working on stories that have fleshed-out characters that aren’t stereotyped. She considers herself an “American performer” who bypasses productions looking to typecast her.
Annapurna resides in New York City, where she is currently working on films as writer, director and actor.
Upcoming projects include:
Tenderly (short) directed by Emma Kanter starring alongside Francois Arnaud
COUP! (Web Series) Directed by Matt Esolda and Brian Goodheart
Continue (Feature Film) Directed by Nadine Croker starring alongside Nadine Croker and Analeigh Tipton
SongBird (Short) Directed by Annapurna Sriram shot on 16mm
Management: Jeremy Berney | jberney@mosaicla.com
Peter Kousakis | pkousakis@mosaicla.com
Public Relations: Sheri DiGiovanna | Sheri@thepressoffice.com | 615-260-7597
