Ellora Patnaik

Ellora Patnaik was born and raised in Toronto, Canada. Her love for acting blossomed early in life. Her first acting experience was Joseph and Mary's donkey in a nativity play in a Toronto Nursery School at the age of three. Her youth included many school plays and a considerable amount of community theatre. Then there was the dance: Ellora is the daughter of the renowned Odissi (Indian Classical Dance from the picturesque state of Utkal, or Orissa) Guru Chitralekha Patnaik and has literally more than a thousand performances to her credit. She has performed in India, Canada, the United States, and Europe and today is internationally recognized as being among the greatest Odissi dancers in the world. She is a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and was selected for the company in her final year. Some of her favourite and more memorable experiences include the role of the troubled schizophrenic Catherine in John Olive's "Standing on my Knees", and as the hippie-child Catherine in "Say Goodnite Gracie". In Girish Karnad's "Nagamandala" she played a character who was not named Catherine, the innocent but snake-charmed Rani, who has a fantastical love-affair with a King Cobra. Her performance in Mira Nair's "My Own Country" was much lauded in the New York Times.