About Janina Gavankar
Janina Zione Gavankar (; born November 29, 1980) is an American actress and musician. She is trained as a pianist, vocalist, and orchestral percussionist and majored in theatre at the University of Illinois Chicago. Her roles include Eva "Papi" Torres on Showtime's The L Word, Shiva on The League, Leigh Turner on The Gates, Luna Garza on HBO's True Blood, McKenna Hall on The CW's Arrow, Diana Thomas on Fox's Sleepy Hollow, and Qetsiyah/Tessa in The CW's The Vampire Diaries. Gavankar has also played the role of Ms. Dewey, a search engine and virtual assistant for Microsoft. == Early life == Gavankar was born in Joliet, Illinois, to Ganesh "Peter" Gavankar, a Marathi engineer from Mumbai, India, who first travelled to the U.S. to pursue a master's degree, and Shan Demohra "Mohra" Gavankar, of half-Marathi and half-Dutch descent from Pune, also in India. == Career == Gavankar has acted in theatre, film, television, and online. Her most notable roles include Iden Versio, a canon Star Wars character and the protagonist of Star Wars: Battlefront II; shapeshifter Luna Garza in True Blood, Papi in The L Word; Ms. Dewey, the personification of a Microsoft live search engine; and Shiva, the namesake of the sought after trophy on The League. She regularly appears in Funny or Die shorts.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.