Devika Parikh

Throughout her career, Devika Parikh has distinguished herself with memorable roles in iconic series and feature films in both comedy and drama. Parikh can next be seen on January 11 in the highly anticipated new OWN series "Kings of Napa," where she stars as "Melanie Pierce," who brings the drama to the King family. Some of her recent roles include playing "Nancy Klein," Meredith's job saving attorney on "Grey's Anatomy," and supporting role in the feature film Aquaman. Raised in Gaithersburg, Maryland to what she lovingly terms a "Blindian," family with an East Indian father from Mumbai, India and an African-American mother from Virginia, Parikh's mixed cultural heritage has always been a source of pride. Her first name in Sanskrit means "little goddess," and her heritage has played a part in her diverse portrayals of black, East Indian, and mixed ethnicity characters throughout her career. Prior to becoming an actor, Parikh pursued journalism, graduating with a degree in broadcast journalism from Syracuse University. After a soul-searching trip to the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia, she decided to leave journalism to pursue her lifelong passion, and began training, appearing in Los Angeles theater productions, and performing comedy. Her early career started with bit comedy roles on "In Living Color," "Martin," and "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air." Her first big recurring role came when she landed the role of "Sheri" on Showtime's series "Resurrection Blvd" which was followed by the role of "Maureen Kingsley" on the iconic Fox smash hit series "24." Up next she booked the recurring role of "Bonnie" on the critically hailed NBC hit drama "The West Wing" which lasted for five seasons. Additional credits include projects such as "Shameless," "No Good Nick," "Prime Suspect" and "Criminal Minds," to name a very few. Parikh has also distinguished herself as a highly in-demand voice-over actress, including providing voice work for the animated films, "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs," "Madagascar," "Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse," and also voicing characters in numerous major video games, TV shows and movies.