Nikeesha Patel

Nikesha Patel
Nikesha in a photoshoot
Other names	Nikeesha, Nikisha, Nikki
Occupation	Film actress, model
Years active	2006-present

Nikesha Patel is a British Indian model and film actress. Born in the United Kingdom, she was part of several BBC TV shows, before moving to India and entering the film industry. She debuted in the 2010 Telugu film Puli and later went on to work in Kannada and Tamil cinema.

Nikesha Patel was born to a Gujarati family in the United Kingdom and raised there. She was a finalist in the 2006 Miss Wales beauty pageant. She called herself "a terrible actor" and said that she was rejected six times by Peter Woolridge’s acting school in three years, but she finally made a diploma in acting. Since she was 15, she has been part of BBC TV shows like Casualty, Tracy Beaker and Doctor Who.

Patel then moved to India planning to work in Bollywood. She got an offer from actor and filmmaker Dev Anand, who was a friend of her father, to act in his film Beauty Queen, but it was shelved. made her film debut in the 2010 Indian Telugu language film, Puli, playing the lead female role. The film was a critical and financial failure and she moved to the Kannada film industry. Her next three releases were Kannada films: Narasimha, for which she was nominated for SIIMA Award for Best Female Debutant, Dakota Picture and Varadhanayaka, a remake of the Telugu film Lakshyam (2007). Although Narasimha and Varadanayaka were successful at the box office, she said that these films "were unsatisfying for me as an actress". 2013 she was seen in her second Telugu film Om 3D too, which she called "the most satisfying so far". She had stated in 2012 that she would make her Malayalam debut in Newsmaker opposite Mammootty, playing a reporter. She was also reported to have been signed for Rosshan Andrrews' Malayalam film Mumbai Police. While the former did not materialize, the latter film did not feature her.