Beauty, Brains & Benevolence
Melanie
Kannokada is a Stanford grad, a Hollywood actor, a supermodel, a pianist, a
karate black belt — and is also involved in a healthcare project for
Jharkhand’s poor
She
was 14 when she earned a black belt in karate. Melanie Kannokada, 27, who
started playing the piano at the age of six, went on to win numerous laurels in
martial arts in her early 20s. A student body president at Stanford University
where she studied mechanical engineering, Kannokada won the Miss India America
title at 21, following which she plunged into modelling and acting after a
brief stint as a consultant at McKinsey.
A math nut, martial arts freak and geek, Kannokada’s Buddha moment came when she visited Jharkhand, one of India’s poorest states, as part of an undergraduate project many years ago. She ended up working closely with Jagriti Vihara, a group of activists led by the indefatigable S Upadhyaya who works towards uplift of the rural poor.
Over the next few years, a team of five — led by Muzaffarabad-born Stanford alumnus Amit Garg — co-founded Hospital for Hope, aimed at providing affordable health services to some 1 lakh villagers in Jharkhand. Currently, this body is setting up a hospital three hours away from state capital Ranchi.
“Melanie is full of energy. She has great perseverance when it comes to raising funds and managing sponsors, which can at times be a painstaking effort,” says Garg who recalls an “event” organised in New York for Hospital for Hope to raise funds. Garg was enamoured of the way Kannokada identified a partner, developed a great model for how the event would work, looped in many people to help her and captured people’s attention by giving a short speech, he says.
Not in an Ivory Tower
Even while she was busy studying how machines work, Kannokada, a recipient of Stanford University’s prestigious Mayfield Fellows Program for tech entrepreneurs, says she had a strong craving to help India’s have-nots. While it was this call that brought her to India, the country of her parents, she was destined to wear many hats in the process.
After quitting McKinsey, she modelled endlessly, appearing in the commercials of top brands. She also played a minor role in Sex and the City 2 as a flight attendant. In fact, she was excited to meet actor Sarah Jessica Parker during the shoot. “I really enjoyed meeting her — she was lovely,” says Kannokada who went on to act on TV, starting with CBS’s Rules of Engagement. This year she will make her Tollywood debut in D for Dopidi. “In the US, my next movie project will be a film set in Silicon Valley, which I’ll be shooting this summer,” she adds without disclosing details.
Abiding Passion
Like the way she managed to secure a second degree black belt in karate, become a pianist and excel in studies, she is ready to take acting and modelling as well as philanthropic work in her stride.
Notably, the Illinois-born Kannokada is very proud of her Indian roots. Her mother was born at Thodupuzha in Kerala’s Idukki district and father in Kochi years before immigrating to the US. According to her, what inspired her to work in India’s public health sector is the empathy she has for people’s needs — and also the respect for people’s tenacity to battle all odds.
She vividly remembers a day in her first visit when her group organised a health camp for the villagers in Jharkhand to provide vaccines and health education. The monsoon was just beginning, and that morning it rained so much that her team was sure that no one would show up. “We were proven wrong,” says Kannokada. It is here that a hospital is being built to offer health services to at least 1 lakh villagers who have to travel hours to access health care.
Academia to Glitz
Videos on her personal website show her practising self-defence tactics — and that too comes naturally to her, she insists. She learnt karate from her brother, a karate instructor. “It turned out that I had a natural ability with martial arts and I learnt quickly.”
However, this woman of eclectic tastes and talent found her decision to enter the world of glitz and glamour a “big shift”. Kannokada says there is something truly flippant about this new turf for a brainiac-Standford grad.
“There is no formula for success, unlike the world of academia or business. There is also so much risk and vulnerability, as you open yourself to judgement by people who don’t know or appreciate all facets of you as a human being,” she says. But Kannokada is unperturbed. “It’s just something you have to embrace about the industry and just focus on enjoying the journey and creative process.”
Kannokada has been deeply inspired by Steve Jobs, the late founder of Apple Inc, “for his creative genius and leadership,” she specifies. Unlike Jobs, however, philanthropy and social work are very close to this multi-talented woman’s heart.
A math nut, martial arts freak and geek, Kannokada’s Buddha moment came when she visited Jharkhand, one of India’s poorest states, as part of an undergraduate project many years ago. She ended up working closely with Jagriti Vihara, a group of activists led by the indefatigable S Upadhyaya who works towards uplift of the rural poor.
Over the next few years, a team of five — led by Muzaffarabad-born Stanford alumnus Amit Garg — co-founded Hospital for Hope, aimed at providing affordable health services to some 1 lakh villagers in Jharkhand. Currently, this body is setting up a hospital three hours away from state capital Ranchi.
“Melanie is full of energy. She has great perseverance when it comes to raising funds and managing sponsors, which can at times be a painstaking effort,” says Garg who recalls an “event” organised in New York for Hospital for Hope to raise funds. Garg was enamoured of the way Kannokada identified a partner, developed a great model for how the event would work, looped in many people to help her and captured people’s attention by giving a short speech, he says.
Not in an Ivory Tower
Even while she was busy studying how machines work, Kannokada, a recipient of Stanford University’s prestigious Mayfield Fellows Program for tech entrepreneurs, says she had a strong craving to help India’s have-nots. While it was this call that brought her to India, the country of her parents, she was destined to wear many hats in the process.
After quitting McKinsey, she modelled endlessly, appearing in the commercials of top brands. She also played a minor role in Sex and the City 2 as a flight attendant. In fact, she was excited to meet actor Sarah Jessica Parker during the shoot. “I really enjoyed meeting her — she was lovely,” says Kannokada who went on to act on TV, starting with CBS’s Rules of Engagement. This year she will make her Tollywood debut in D for Dopidi. “In the US, my next movie project will be a film set in Silicon Valley, which I’ll be shooting this summer,” she adds without disclosing details.
Abiding Passion
Like the way she managed to secure a second degree black belt in karate, become a pianist and excel in studies, she is ready to take acting and modelling as well as philanthropic work in her stride.
Notably, the Illinois-born Kannokada is very proud of her Indian roots. Her mother was born at Thodupuzha in Kerala’s Idukki district and father in Kochi years before immigrating to the US. According to her, what inspired her to work in India’s public health sector is the empathy she has for people’s needs — and also the respect for people’s tenacity to battle all odds.
She vividly remembers a day in her first visit when her group organised a health camp for the villagers in Jharkhand to provide vaccines and health education. The monsoon was just beginning, and that morning it rained so much that her team was sure that no one would show up. “We were proven wrong,” says Kannokada. It is here that a hospital is being built to offer health services to at least 1 lakh villagers who have to travel hours to access health care.
Academia to Glitz
Videos on her personal website show her practising self-defence tactics — and that too comes naturally to her, she insists. She learnt karate from her brother, a karate instructor. “It turned out that I had a natural ability with martial arts and I learnt quickly.”
However, this woman of eclectic tastes and talent found her decision to enter the world of glitz and glamour a “big shift”. Kannokada says there is something truly flippant about this new turf for a brainiac-Standford grad.
“There is no formula for success, unlike the world of academia or business. There is also so much risk and vulnerability, as you open yourself to judgement by people who don’t know or appreciate all facets of you as a human being,” she says. But Kannokada is unperturbed. “It’s just something you have to embrace about the industry and just focus on enjoying the journey and creative process.”
Kannokada has been deeply inspired by Steve Jobs, the late founder of Apple Inc, “for his creative genius and leadership,” she specifies. Unlike Jobs, however, philanthropy and social work are very close to this multi-talented woman’s heart.
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