Priyanka Chopra is an Indian actress, singer, producer and philanthropist who has earned widespread popularity and global recognition, establishing herself as one of the highest paid actresses in Bollywood and most prolific celebrities of the country. She was the winner of Miss World pageant of 2000. She has been honoured with a melange of accolades, most recent of which is India"s fourth highest civilian honour, the Padma Shri. She has also been conferred a National Film Award and 5 Filmfare Awards. Besides earning unanimous critical acclaim for her many performances in varied and versatile roles in Hindi films, Chopra has also been internationally recognised for her single song recordings. She is also a noted philanthropist and was appointed as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador for Child Rights in 2010. Among the various issues addressed by her, she is particularly vocal on women issues and feminism, like their safety, gender equality and gender pay inequality.

Early Life of Priyanka Chopra
Priyanka Chopra was born on July 18, 1982 in Jamshedpur, Bihar, presently in the state of Jharkhand, to Ashok and Madhu Chopra, both physicians in the Indian Army. Given the nature of their work, Chopra"s family relocated to several places in the country. She completed a part of her schooling at La Martiniere Girls` School in Lucknow and St. Maria Goretti College in Bareilly, both in Uttar Pradesh. At 13, she moved to the United States and attended schools in Newton, Massachusetts, in Queens, New York and in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. While in Massachusetts, she took part in many theatre productions and studied Western classical music, choral singing and the dance form "Kathak". She returned to India after three years and completed the second year of her high school at the Army Public School in Bareilly. At this time, she won the local "May Queen" beauty pageant and later her mother enrolled her into the Femina Miss India contest of 2000, where she won the Femina Miss India World title and went on to be crowned the Miss World 2000 title in the Miss World pageant, at the Millennium Dome in London on November 30, 2000. She was the fifth Indian to win the Miss World and the fourth to do so within a span of seven years. She had enrolled in college, but left after winning the Miss World title, post which she started receiving offers for film roles.

Film Career of Priyanka Chopra
Priyanka Chopra, in her film career, has worked in a wide range of Hindi films and played a vast range of roles, establishing herself as one of the most versatile and talented actresses in the industry. Starting off as being primarily considered as the glamour quotient in films, she has progressed to deliver the finest and critically appreciated performances in portraying different characters.

Before making her Bollywood debut, she appeared in the Tamil film "Thamizhan" in 2002, alongside Tamil actor Vijay. She entered the Hindi film industry with films "The Hero: Love Story of a Spy", alongside Sunny Deol and Preity Zinta and "Andaaz", alongside Akshay Kumar and Lara Dutta. She starred in subsequent successful films "Mujhse Shaadi Karogi" and "Aitraaz", her performance in the latter earning wide critical acclaim and many accolades. She continued to work in films that went unnoticed at the box office, along with those that were successful, such as "Waqt: The Race Against Time", "Krrish" and "Don: The Chase Begins Again", until landing her path-breaking role of an aspiring supermodel in Madhur Bhandarkar"s "Fashion", for which she received the National Film Award for Best Actress and numerous other accolades, along with unanimous critical appreciation. She continued to deliver critically acclaimed performances, thus consistently proving her versatility in films like "Kaminey", "7 Khoon Maaf", "Agneepath", "Barfi!", "Mary Kom", "Dil Dhadakne Do" and most recently "Bajirao Mastani", in all of which her performances received wide critical appraisal. She will also be seen next in Hollywood"s action comedy film "Baywatch", alongside Dwayne Johnson.

Music Career of Priyanka Chopra
Priyanka Chopra`s puts it that her main vocal influence was her father who was "an incredible singer" and helped develop her interest in singing. In July 2012, Chopra became the first Bollywood star signed by Creative Artists Agency, an entertainment and sports agency based in Los Angeles. Her first single "In My City" released in 2012, co-featuring rapper will.i.am. It received mixed reviews from critics and was a commercial success. It won her the Best International Debut award at the People`s Choice Awards India and 3 nominations - Best Female Artist, Best Song and Best Video at the World Music Awards. Her second major single "Exotic", co-featuring American rapper Pitbull, released in 2013 and successfully charted in countries such as the United States and Canada and the third, "I Can"t Make You Love Me", released in 2014 and charted in the US.

Other Ventures of Priyanka Chopra
In 2015, Priyanka Chopra began starring as Alex Parrish on the ABC drama "Quantico", becoming the first South Asian woman to headline an American TV series. She is also producing 3 regional language films under her production company Purple Pebbles Pictures - Marathi film "Ventilator", Punjabi film "Ek Onkar" and Bhojpuri film "Bam Bam Bol Raha Hai Kashi", all scheduled to release in 2016.

Priyanka Chopra has also been a television presenter and stage performer, having participated in the world tour Temptations 2004, with Bollywood leading stars Shah Rukh Khan, Rani Mukerjee, Saif Ali Khan, Preity Zinta and Arjun Rampal. She hosted the third season of the reality show "Fear Factor: Khatron Ke Khiladi", on the Colors channel. In 2012, she performed in the opening ceremony of the fifth edition of the Indian Premier League. In February 2016, Chopra presented the award for Best Film Editing at the 88th Academy Awards. She has also been an avid column writer and philanthropist, addressing a melange of issues, particularly on feminism, criticising female genital mutilation and child marriage, while endorsing girl child education. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi nominated Chopra in "Navratna" in 2014, for promoting the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, a national cleanliness campaign by the Government of India. She extended her support by cleaning and rehabilitating a garbage-laden neighbourhood in Mumbai and urging people into maintaining cleanliness.

Awards and Honours received by Priyanka Chopra
Priyanka Chopra in her career has been recognised and honoured with the following awards:


•Padma Shri, India"s fourth highest civilian honour, by Government of India in 2016
•National Film Award for Best Actress for "Fashion" (2008)
•Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut for "Andaaz" in 2004
•Filmfare Award for Best Performance in a Negative Role for "Aitraaz" in 2005
•Filmfare Award for Best Actress for "Fashion" in 2009
•Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress for "7 Khoon Maaf" in 2012
•Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress for "Bajirao Mastani" in 2015

Personal Life of Priyanka Chopra
Priyanka Chopra"s cousins Parineeti Chopra, Meera Chopra and Mannara are actresses. She has a brother, Siddharth, seven years younger. She considers Bareilly her home town and maintains strong connections there. She was very close to her father, who died in June 2013. In 2012, she got a tattoo reading "Daddy`s lil girl", in his handwriting.