Melinda Shankar Canadian Actress Born 1992 in Ottawa

Early life

Melinda Leanna Shankar is a Canadian actress, born on 18 February 1992 in Ottawa, Ontario. She grew up in Orleans, a suburb of Ottawa, in a family with roots in Guyana: her mother was an actress and her paternal grandfather was a director in Guyana. She has two older sisters and a brother who is also an actor.

Her father ran a karate school in Ottawa, and she began karate at the age of three, as well as ballet; she later earned a black belt. As a child she worked as a model and appeared in a number of print advertisements, including a Procter & Gamble billboard in Los Angeles. Her father often drove as far as five hours from Ottawa to Toronto to take her to auditions.

She attended Sir Wilfrid Laurier Secondary School in Ottawa until grade 11. After she was cast in Degrassi: The Next Generation in 2008, she moved to Toronto at sixteen, and she is also recorded as having studied at Vaughan Road Academy in that city.

Career

Shankar's acting debut came in 2008, when she joined the Canadian teen drama Degrassi: The Next Generation on CTV as Alli Bhandari, a student entering ninth grade. She stayed with the series for seven seasons, until it ended in 2015.

In 2009 she took the lead in a second series, the YTV comedy How to Be Indie, as Indira "Indie" Mehta. The series ran for two seasons, and its last episode aired on 24 October 2011. For this role she received a Gemini Award in 2011 and a Canadian Screen Award in 2013.

In 2010 she co-starred with Jennifer Stone and Vanessa Morgan in the children's television film Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars, playing Janie. The same year she was cast in her first feature film, Festival of Lights, which was shot on location in New York City and Georgetown, Guyana. Her father, who knew the Guyanese locations well, served as the production manager. Since 2018 she has played Bella in all three films of the Christmas with a Prince franchise. Her most recent credit on record is the female lead, Sarah, in the Christmas show Magic On Set, produced in 2025 for the YouTube channel of Air Canada and Ottawa Tourism.

Outside acting, Shankar began working in 2013 with a childhood friend on an image consulting business. On 22 February 2014 they launched Miss Conception, a styling and image agency based in Toronto.

Recognition

Her best-known honours came for How to Be Indie, with the Gemini Award in 2011 and the Canadian Screen Award in 2013. She won several awards for the series in total.

Personal life

Shankar has been based in Toronto since moving there for Degrassi. She is a supporter of the Breaking Boards, Breaking Chains campaign, an event that raises funds for young survivors of sexual assault in Bolivia.