Biography

Shenaz Treasurywala was born on June 29, 1981 in Bombay, Maharashtra, India. She is the daughter of a Merchant Navy captain and spent the first seven years of her life traveling the globe on board cargo ships carrying potatoes, onions and rice. After completing her school she enrolled in St. Xavier's College. It was during her first year in this college that she was discovered by a photographer. She started her career as a model and has appeared in TV commercials like Gold Spot, Philips, Trigger Jeans, Akai, Elle 18, and many more. She then started working as a Veejay for MTV.

In 2001, Shenaz moved to New York, USA, to enroll in the Lee Strasberg Theater & Film Institute, as well as taking a writing course at New York University. She was thrilled to complete this 8 month course in the same school as Al Pacino and Robert De Niro. She made quite a dramatic entry into Bollywood after she lost her luggage, passport and visa papers while traveling by Kuwait Airways, and as result was unable to return to New York. This incident proved to be an advantage as she was approached by Ken Ghosh, who signed her up for a role in Ishq Vishk (2003). She was nominated for the Filmfare Awards for "Ishq Vishk", which went on to be a huge Asia-wide box office phenomenon. She has since then acted in a total of several other movies.

Her hobbies include photography, playing the piano, travel, scuba, surfing, dancing, horseback riding, writing, and this natural beauty, with a dimpled and toothy smile atop curved lips, is ranked amongst the 'Top 100 Beautiful Women.' Quite versatile as she is an actress, writer, TV presenter, VJ, travel junkie, and nature lover. She is also host on Travel Channel's Culture Shock (2007), and has written travel articles in magazines which include Cosmopolitan, Femina, and Elle. Shenaz became a household name on MTV Asia at a very young age. Her most popular show, MTV's Most Wanted (1992) was the highest rated show on MTV for years and MTV often jokingly complained they had no space for her fan mail. She was on MTV Asia for 8 years hosting every show, based in Hong Kong, Singapore and Mumbai.

After this phenomenal success of "Ishq Vishk", Shenaz left India for Hong Kong to act in a comedy show called MTV Whatever Things (2003), which was the highest-rated show in South East Asia. Her dream series Culture Shock (2007), a quirky travel show was written, produced and hosted by her. It aired on the Discovery Travel Channel in the U.S. After "Culture Shock", Shenaz returned to India and hosted, The Great Indian Laughter Challenge (2005) on Star TV and the "Unforgettable Tour" (Bachchan World Tour) on NDTV Imagine. She played lead roles in Umar (2006), Aagey Se Right (2009) and Radio: Love on Air (2009). She played a lead character of Rama Patel in one of America's longest running soap operas, On ne vit qu'une fois (1968). Both she and her character were household name amongst the soap watchers. This femme fatale developed a huge fan base in America and was regularly on the cover of all the soap magazines.

Shenaz is also a screenplay writer and her first film, Luv Ka the End (2011) was produced by Yash Raj Films. She has also acted in Delhi Belly (2011) opposite Imran Khan which turned out to be the biggest hit of the year in India. It's been talked about as a cult film in which she plays a sassy sexy air hostess. Shenaz also acted in independent American films like The Networker (2015). In spring of 2015, she was a contributor in The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore (2015). She resides in New York but does shuttle back and forth between the U.S. and India - depending on filming schedules - and calls herself 'Trans-Continental'.

- IMDb mini biography by: rAjOo