Seema Rahmani

Early life

While her family background links to Pune, Maharashtra, Seema was born and raised in Kuwait where her father worked with an oil company and her mother as an English teacher in a Kuwaiti government high school. She did her initial schooling at Indian School, Salmiya, Kuwait, after which she left for the U.S. at the age of 15. She completed high school in Newark, New York, then a Bachelor of Science with a minor in Mathematics at State University of New York at Fredonia, and an M.A. in Marketing/Advertising from Emerson College in Boston. She enjoyed a corporate PR career for a couple of years before she started her acting career.

Career

Seema took time off from her public relations corporate job in L.A., California in 1997 to visit Spain. Upon returning from Barcelona, she decided to leave her corporate career and join theater in Los Angeles, thus beginning her acting career. She soon landed stints in two television series - Alias for ABC and Roswell for Warner Brothers 2000-2001. Rahmani moved to India in 2003 and worked in films such as Vinod Pande's true-story inspired Sins in 2005 where she was noticed for her range and fluency in exploring a character's vulnerability, Zee TV Films' Arjun Varma, and Missed Call by Mridul Toolsidas and Vinay Subrmanium, which was adjudged the Best International film at Israel's Red Sea International Film Festival. Rahmani's performance received accolades in the super-hit comedy film Loins of Punjab Presents in 2007, which won the Audience Award for best feature film at the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles. These films gave her recognition and drew the attention of independent filmmakers looking for an "effortlessly natural" actor and a "quintessential Indian face".

Her work between 2007-2012 as host/anchor of the hit TV animal-show Heavy Petting on NDTV Good Times brought her recognition both as a television presenter and spokesperson for compassion towards animals and animal rights.

As a film actor, Rahmani again demonstrated her versatility in her 2012 films Good Night Good Morning and Love Wrinkle-free.

In 2013 Seema revisited the theater circuit, this time in Delhi, writing, directing, producing and acting. Her play Life Like Rainbow Grey, the premier performances of which were sponsored by The American Embassy in New Delhi, in celebration of Women's International Day (also on World Peace Day), was very well received. The play, which then went on to be selected for The Contemporary Arts Festival, is a true to life account of her experiences in working with children in an institutionalized group home who were wards of the state of California, and also delves into the subject of parenting and marriage. Rahmani then wrote its sequel Life Like Violet Rain, and a compilation of ten short-acts.

Her work as a show-host forayed into live events including the 21st Annual World Travel Awards Asia and Australasia Ceremony held in 2014, in India, an awards event called "The Oscars" of the travel industry by The Wall Street Journal.

Seema has also produced the music album "Rab Se...", a unique and original collection of empowering & loving lullabies in Hindi "for children and their adults" [released January 2016], featuring revered and respected singers from India Rekha Bhardwaj, Roop Kumar Rathod, Suresh Wadkar, ghazal maestro Sudeep Banerjee, plus Aditi Paul, Dilip Shankar and herself.

Humanitarian Work

Seema's animal welfare work began early in her childhood in Kuwait. As an adult, she has been involved in animal welfare specifically with relevance to animal birth control, rescue, and adoption of domestic animals since the early 90s and again intensively since 2003 in various pockets of Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, and Rajasthan. She spearheaded rescue and animal birth control operations, including restructuring inhumane practices into humane operations both in Mumbai and in Panchgini. Seema also adopted an underprivileged "jugghi" in South Delhi and worked with its under-privileged children empowering them through various facets in the art of living, including, yoga, meditation, creative arts, and educational field trips.

In 2005, politically incorrect but honest, in the wake of a media sting operation that brought acts of unprofessionalism in the movie industry to the forefront of media discussions and debates, Rahmani contributed to industry and public awareness in the controversial matter through authoring a personal account article published by Outlook Magazine (10th anniversary edition) and The Times of India.