Avantika Vandanapu Biography: From Dreams to Stardom

Avantika Vandanapu Telugu: born January 25, 2005) is an American actress and singer. She began her career with the 2016 Telugu film Brahmotsavam and later took on several other projects within Telugu cinema.

She then transitioned to American cinema and had her first lead role in the Disney Channel original movie Spin (2021) and subsequently starred in Netflix’s Senior Year (2022). Avantika gained recognition with supporting roles in the musical comedy Mean Girls and horror film Tarot (both 2024).

Avantika Vandanapu was born to an Indian Telugu family in Union City, California, part of the San Francisco Bay Area, on January 25, 2005. Her family originally hails from Hyderabad in India before they emigrated to the United States. She took drama lessons at the American Conservatory Theater.

Avantika currently resides in New York City. She attends Columbia University as a member of the class of 2027.

In 2014, Avantika won second place in the Zee TV dance competition reality series Dance India Dance L’il Masters (North America Edition).

Avantika entered Telugu cinema in 2015 and was signed for two movies. She was selected to play the role of Chutki in 14 Reels Entertainment’s Krishna Gaadi Veera Prema Gaadha (2016), however, scheduling conflicts forced her to leave during production. Avantika officially debuted as a child artist in Brahmotsavam (2016) starring Mahesh Babu. She then appeared in Chandra Shekhar Yeleti’s film Manamantha. Later, she signed on for Premam starring Naga Chaitanya and Shruti Hassan, in which she portrayed the younger version of Madonna Sebastian’s character. Avantika revealed that the key reason for her departure from Telugu cinema was the lack of variety in the roles she was offered which mainly consisted of playing the “childhood of heroine” or a supporting role.

In 2021, Avantika debuted into American cinema by playing the lead role of Rhea Kumar. A headstrong high school student with aspirations of becoming a DJ in the Disney Channel Original Movie Spin. The film, along with her performance, had a positive reception from Udita Jhunjhunwala of Firstpost who described her as a “delight” and took note of her “sparkling eyes, as she glides through the restaurant with as much ease as she finds her groove behind the mixing console”. She followed this with supporting roles in the unremarkable Netflix original films Moxie and Senior Year (2022).

In 2024, Avantika portrayed Karen Shetty in the film adaptation of the Broadway musical Mean Girls, based on the 2004 movie of the same name. She had to take a “temporary leave of absence” from university to accommodate the timings required for shooting. Avantika discussed the change in Karen’s ethnicity from the original film, stating that “playing that kind of character, especially as an Indian American woman, is really, really crazy”. She added that she was “excited to finally play a South Asian character that wasn’t reduced to being a stereotype”. The film received mixed reviews from critics, however, her performance was well received. Writing for The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw commended Avantika as the standout “amongst the mean girls”. Mean Girls emerged as a commercial success. Which led to The Times of India crediting the film with helping establish her presence in American cinema.

She returned to Indian projects with the Amazon Prime Video original series Big Girls Don’t Cry. She portrayed Ludo, a closeted lesbian struggling to retain her basketball captaincy whilst coming to terms with her sexuality. In a mixed review for Film Companion, Rahul Desai criticised the number of characters in the series making it difficult to maintain focus to the nuances of each one’s storyline. But praised the chemistry and performances of the cast. The following month, Avantika appeared amongst an ensemble in the Anna Halberg and Spenser Cohen-helmed horror film Tarot.

Her decision to take on the role was influenced by her mother’s belief in astrology and her own early interest in the occult, as the film combined both themes. Reception to the film was generally negative; in her review for Collider, Emma Kiely thought that Avantika’s performance had been constrained as she “isn’t given enough to do”, and compared it unfavourably to her performance in Mean Girls. Made on a shoestring-budget, Tarot emerged as a major commercial success.

Avantika is set to headline the Disney+ original series A Crown of Wishes, based on the 2017 novel of the same name by Roshani Chokshi and star alongside Maddie Ziegler and Lana Condor in the thriller film Ballerina Overdrive.

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