Divyadarshini Indian Actress Born 1984 in Chennai

Early life

Divyadarshini, also spelled Dhivyadharshini and widely known by the initials DD, is an Indian television presenter and actress who works mainly in Tamil television and cinema. She was born on 17 February in Chennai to K. Neelakandan and N. Srilatha. Her mother's family is from Kerala and her father's from Tamil Nadu. Her sister, Priyadharshini, also works as a television host, and she has a younger brother who is an airline pilot.

For school she attended Our Lady's Matriculation Higher Secondary School. Her studies continued at Ethiraj College for Women in Chennai, and she is also recorded as having taken part-time courses at Anna Adarsh College in the city.

Career

Her career began in front of the camera in 1999, when she auditioned successfully to be the child anchor of the Vijay TV programme Ungal Theerpu. She then moved into acting. Her breakthrough in that field came with a serious role in the television serial Rekkai Kattiya Manasu, directed by K. Balachander and broadcast on Raj TV; the performance brought her wider recognition and more offers.

In 2003 she appeared in several films in supporting roles, among them Five by Four, Whistle and Nala Damayanthi, the last a production of Kamal Haasan. After a handful of cameo appearances on screen she went back to television, where she took notable parts in the Raadan Media serials Selvi and Arasi. Her best-known later film credit is Dhuruva Natchatiram, released in 2017, in which she is billed seventh. Her three listed film credits run from 2003 to 2017.

She has also worked as a dubbing artist. She provided the voice of Vega Tamotia in Saroja (2008) and of Piaa Bajpai in Goa (2010).

Presenting has been the larger part of her working life since 2007, when she became a regular host for Vijay TV. She has fronted a number of reality shows on the channel, and most of her presenting has been done in Tamil entertainment. She was one of the original hosts of the dance competition Jodi Number One, working alongside Deepak and Aravind Akash, and the first presenter of Boys vs. Girls. In 2014 she began hosting Koffee with DD, a talk show built around her own name, and she has also hosted Anbudan DD.

Recognition

Her list of awards includes entries from the Ananda Vikatan awards, given by the Tamil weekly of that name to films, actors and technicians, and from the Vijay Television Awards. She has been counted among the leading television anchors in Tamil since 2007.

Personal life

She married Srikanth Ravichandran, a friend of long standing who worked as an assistant director. The couple announced their separation in 2017, and divorce proceedings followed in a family court in Chennai.