Andrea Jeremiah


Andrea Jeremiah is an Indian actress, playback singer and musician. She works predominantly in the Tamil and Malayalam film industries. She also appeared in Telugu Films. She began her career as a playback singer, and has subsequently appeared in films.

Early life

Jeremiah was born in an Anglo-Indian Roman Catholic Christian family in Arakkonam, Tamil Nadu, then moved to Chennai. Her father is a lawyer at the High Court in Chennai. She has one younger sister who lives and works at Leuven, Belgium as a research assistant. Jeremiah was raised near Chennai and went to National Public School and graduated from Women's Christian College. She has said that she was quite a geek and wanted to be a psychiatrist until she completed her 12th board exams.
Jeremiah learned classical piano when she was eight. At age 10, she was a part of a Jackson Five-style troupe called Young Stars which formed the base of her early singing and music composing career. She was also a theatre artist in her college and appeared in several stage plays organised by The Madras Players and EVAM. She was the President of the Student Senate at Women's Christian College. She also organised a company, The Show Must Go On, to promote live art and artistes. Jeremiah said that as a college student, she turned down every film offer she got as she had no intention of becoming a film actor.

Career

Acting

She began her theatre career with Girish Karnad's Nagamandala. She acted in new leo coffee advertisement with actor shiva in 2006. She also acted in a serial which relayed Podhigai channel. She has performed all over India. After she rendered a song in Gautham Menon's Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu, he asked her to play a lead female character in his next venture, Pachaikili Muthucharam. This film was a film adaptation of James Siegel's novel Derailed, with Jeremiah portraying Kalyani, a homemaker, whose husband engages in an affair and is blackmailed. Jeremiah was selected for the role after actresses Simran, Shobana and Tabu were approached.
She signed for Selvaraghavan's fantasy-adventure film Aayirathil Oruvan, which released in early 2010. In 2011, she agreed to play a minor supporting role in Venkat Prabhu's multi-starrer Mankatha, which was released in August 2011. In 2013, she made her debut in Malayalam cinema with Rajeev Ravi's romance film Annayum Rasoolum. She has rated this film as the best in her career. She played a role in Kamal Haasan's Vishwaroopam and reprised the role in its sequel, which released in 2018.
Jeremiah has completed filming for Puthiya Thiruppangal, in which she plays a journalist. In Endrendrum Punnagai, she played a model and she also acted in the Malayalam film London Bridge. She had signed on to director Ram's Taramani, which released in 2017.
In 2015, Jeremiah was cast alongside Mohanlal in Loham, directed by Ranjith. This was her third Malayalam film, and the first with Mohanlal.
She is currently filming Kaa, in which she plays the lead role. She reportedly plays a wildlife photographer.

Singing

Jeremiah has stated that her focus was always on music, that she chose to be a professional singer and that acting happened by chance. In 2005, she ventured into playback singing in feature films. She has sung several popular songs for composers Harris Jayaraj, Yuvan Shankar Raja, Anirudh Ravichander, Thaman Devi Sri Prasad and G. V. Prakash Kumar and has also received nominations at Filmfare and Vijay Awards for a few of them. She considers the song "Maalai Neram" as the most challenging she has sung.

Composing

Apart from singing under other composers' direction, Jeremiah also produces her own music. She composed, wrote and sang a single, "Soul of Taramani", as a promo for her Tamil romantic-drama Taramani. She has composed several music themes, songs and albums.

Personal Life

In a public function at Bengaluru, she had opened up about a difficult time she faced due to an affair with a married man, she was abused physically and mentally in the relationship, which put her in depression.

Filmography

YearFilmRoleLanguageNotes
2005Kanda Naal MudhalGirl at the final wedding sceneTamil
2007Pachaikili MuthucharamKalyani VenkateshTamilNominated — Vijay Award for Best Debut Actress
2010Aayirathil OruvanLavanya ChandramouliTamilNominated — Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress – Tamil
2011MankathaSabitha PrithvirajTamil
2012Oru Kal Oru KannadiMurugan's girlfriendTamilGuest appearance
2012SaguniAndreaTamilGuest appearance
2013Annayum RasoolumAnnaMalayalamMalayalam debut
2013VishwaroopamAshmita SubramaniamTamilNominated — Vijay Award for Best Supporting Actress
2013VishwaroopAshmita SubramaniamHindiHindi debut
2013TadakhaNanduTeluguTelugu debut
2013Endrendrum PunnagaiSoniaTamil
2014Inga Enna SolluthuRaghu's girlfriendTamilGuest appearance
2014London BridgePavithraMalayalam
2014AranmanaiMadhaviTamil
2014PoojaiHerselfTamilSpecial appearance
2015AambalaHerselfTamilGuest appearance
2015ValiyavanSubhikshaTamil
2015Uttama VillainArpanaTamil
2015LohamJayanthiMalayalam
2016Idhu Namma AaluPriyaTamil
2016Thoppil JoppanAnnieMalayalam
2017TaramaniAlthea JohnsonTamilNominated — Filmfare Award for Best Actress – Tamil
2017ThupparivaalanPrithaTamil
2017The House Next DoorLakshmiHindi
2017AvalLakshmiTamil
2017GruhamLakshmiTelugu
2018Vishwaroopam IIAshmita SubramaniamTamil
2018Vishwaroop 2Ashmita SubramaniamHindi
2018Vada ChennaiChandraTamil
2020MasterTamilFilming
2020Vattam TamilFilming
2020Maaligai TamilFilming
2020KaaTamilFilming
2020Aranmanai 3TamilFilming

As voice actor

Television

Discography