The vibrant, attractive and determined Richa Gangopadhyay is an Indian film actress, model and former beauty queen.

Richa Gangopadhyay was born on 20th March 1989 in a Bengali Brahmin family, to Utpal and Paula Gangopadhyay, in New Delhi and brought up in Michigan, USA. Her real name is Antara Gangopadhyay.

Her father works as the COO of Netshape Technologies, while her mother works as a Director of Education at The Henry Ford Museum in Detroit. Her parents settled in the USA in 1989 with Richa being brought up in Pennsylvania and Michigan. While attending Okemos High School, she was featured in the local media for founding a youth-tutoring program for at-risk children in Lansing, which she ran for four years. She went on to major in Dietetics and Health Administration at Michigan State University, Michigan.

After appearing in commercials, she made her film debut in the 2010 Telugu political drama Leader. Since then, she went on to win critical acclaim for her role in Nagavalli and commercial success with her role in Mirapakaay.Her first Tamil film is Mayakkam Enna in which she has received positive reviews for her acting.


In August 2007, Richa won the Miss Michigan pageant and in December, she was crowned Miss India USA 2007 at the 26th annual pageant held at Royal Albert's Palace in New Jersey. She had secured the title of Miss Photogenic and qualified to represent USA in the 17th Annual Miss India Worldwide Pageant held in Johannesburg. She won awards for Miss Beautiful Eyes and Miss Photogenic. She had also won Miss Congeniality award in miss India USA contest.


Richa left the USA in 2008 to Shastrinagar, India to embark on a career in films. She subsequently graduated with a diploma in acting from Anupam Kher's acting school, Actor Prepares, and completed her portfolio, earning offers for work in fashion shows and for modelling.

In early 2009, Richa featured in a commercial for Vatika Almond Hair Oil alongside Preity Zinta. She also worked as a model for Peter England, Malabar Gold and Kalaniketan.


Richa was signed on to portray the lead role in the 2010 Telugu film, Leader produced by AVM Productions and directed by Sekhar Kammula. She was recommended to an assistant director of Leader whilst at a gym, who in turn recommended her to Sekhar Kammula. Richa moved to Hyderabad and auditioned for the film on her birthday. She was selected instantly and shooting started 2 days later.

In the film, she played the role of Archana, a CEO of a TV channel and a daughter of a politician who falls in love with the title character, played by debutant Rana Daggubati. The film opened to positive reviews and did well commercially, with Richa's performance described as "pretty and charming" and "good in a performance oriented role" by critics.


After the success of the film, director P. Vasu signed her up to appear in Nagavalli, a sequel to his 2005 film Chandramukhi. The film featured an ensemble cast of Venkatesh, Anushka Shetty, Shraddha Das and Poonam Kaur. The film also opened to average reviews, with Richa's portrayal of a girl psychologically possessed by the ghost of Nagavalli, leading to critics dubbing her as "impressive" and "convincing".


Her first release in 2011 was the action film Mirapakaay also featuring Ravi Teja and Deeksha Seth in lead roles. She was signed after the director of the film, Harish Shankar, had noticed her at the success party of her previous film Leader. He initially offered her the role played by Deeksha as she was an NRI, but when they met to review the script, he was convinced that Richa would do justice to the character of Vinamra, a traditional Brahmin girl. The film opened to good reviews with Richa's performance being described as "just about okay" by critics.


Richa will next be seen in two Tamil films; the first being Mayakkam Enna, a drama film based on marriage featuring Dhanush and directed by Selvaraghavan.

Furthermore she signed on to appear alongside Silambarasan in a leading role in Dharani's Osthe, the Tamil remake of the 2010 Hindi film Dabangg which has gone on to be a box office hit.


She makes her debut in Bengali which is her mother language, through the film, the remake of Vikramarkudu in Telugu and Siruthai in Tamil.