Early life

Jaffrey was born in Manhattan, New York, the youngest daughter of Indian-born parents, actress and food and travel writer Madhur Jaffrey and actor Saeed Jaffrey. Her parents divorced when she was three years old, and she grew up estranged from her father, who subsequently moved to the United Kingdom. She graduated from Vassar College in 1984. She studied Mandarin Chinese at the college, originally planning to be a translator before she became an actress.

Career

Jaffrey appeared with her father in the film Masala (1991) and with her mother in The Perfect Murder (1988). In 2002 she appeared in The Truth About Charlie starring Mark Wahlberg. With her son Cassius Wilkinson and daughter Jamila Wilkinson, she appeared in Raising Helen (2004) and in The Ode (2008).

She stars as Linda Vasquez, the White House Chief of Staff, in the Netflix series House of Cards (2013). In 2014, it was announced that she would be appearing in the second season of Fox's television series Sleepy Hollow as Leena Reyes, the new sheriff.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1988	The Perfect Murder	Neena Lal
1989	Slaves of New York	Willfredo's receptionist
1992	Masala	Rita Solanksi
1995	The Indian in the Cupboard	Lucy
1996	Daylight	Kit's passenger #1
1999	Chutney Popcorn	Sarita
1999	Cotton Mary	Rosie
2001	Revolution No. 9	Dr. Ray
2001	The Mystic Masseur	Suruj Mooma
2002	The Guru	Young Woman in Dance Class
2002	The Truth About Charlie	Sylvia
2003	Ash Tuesday	June
2003	American Made	N/A	Short film
2004	Raising Helen	Nilma Prasad
2004	The Manchurian Candidate	Mysterious Arabic Woman
2006	Hiding Divya	Dr. Sharma
2007	Where God Left His Shoes	Doctor
2007	Dharini	Kiran	Short film
2007	Waking Dreams	Rajani
2007	The Nanny Diaries	Sima
2007	Before the Devil Knows You're Dead	Manager
2008	Definitely, Maybe	School Mom
2008	The Toe Tactic	Lacticia Utt
2008	The Understudy	Nurse
2008	The Ode	Parin
2009	Company Retreat	Sareeta
2010	Nevermind Nirvana	Dr. Sarita Matto	Television film
2011	Breakaway	Livleen Singh
2012	The Domino Effect	Serena
2013	The Necklace	Sunira	Short film

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2000	Law & Order	Dr. Balikrishan	Episode: "Endurance"
2003-2005	Third Watch	Dr. Hickman	16 episodes
2004	Sex and the City	Rama Patel	Episode: "Splat!"
2004	Law & Order	Roya Koutal	Episode: "Caviar Emptor"
2006	Heroes	Mrs. Suresh	2 episodes
2007	What Goes On	Asha	Episode: "Blue"
2007	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Geeta Chanoor	Episode: "Outsider"
2011	Blue Bloods	Mrs. Demir	Episode: "Thanksgiving"
2012	Girls	Gynecologist	Episode: "Vagina Panic"
2013-2014	House of Cards	Linda Vasquez	18 episodes
2014-2015	Sleepy Hollow	Sheriff Leena Reyes	5 episodes
2014	Madam Secretary	Foreign Minister Chondita Samant	Episode: "Passage"
2015	Mr. Robot	Antara Nayar	3 episodes
2015	Halal In The Family	Fatima Qu'osby	4 episodes
2015-2016	The Mindy Project	Sonu Lahiri	3 episodes
2016	Blindspot	Susan Albright	Episode: "Cease Forcing Enemy"

Awards and nominations

Year	Association	Category	Nominated work	Result
2015	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series	House of Cards	Nominated

[ Source: Wikipedia ]