Melinda Shankar

Melinda Shankar
Shankar in November 2010
Born	(1992-02-18) February 18, 1992 (age 25) Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Occupation	Actress
Years active	2008–present
Known for	Degrassi: The Next Generation

Melinda Shankar (born February 18, 1992) is a Canadian actress of Indo-Guyanese heritage. She is best known for her starring roles as Alli Bhandari in the long-running TV series Degrassi: The Next Generation and as Indira "Indie" Mehta in the YTV series How To Be Indie, for which she won several awards, including a Canadian Screen Award in 2013.

Shankar was born in Ottawa to Indo-Guyanese parents who immigrated to Canada. She has two older sisters and a brother, who is also an actor. She was raised in Orleans, a suburban section of Ottawa.

She began studying ballet and karate at the age of three. Shankar currently has a black belt in karate. She attended Sir Wilfrid Laurier Secondary School in Ottawa until grade 11 before moving to Toronto following her casting in Degrassi in 2008.

Shankar began her career as a child model and appeared in numerous print advertisements, including a Procter & Gamble billboard in Los Angeles. Shankar's mother was an actress and her paternal grandfather was a director in Guyana. Shankar's father would often drive up to five hours from Ottawa to Toronto for her auditions. In 2008, she debuted as an actress in the popular teen television series Degrassi, joining the cast as an incoming 9th grade student. Shankar left the show in 2015, after seven seasons.