Avantika Vandanapu, credited these days with just her first name, is an American-Indian actress who got her start in Indian cinema. She’s broken into American cinema with the help of both Disney and a Broadway musical that was adapted for the big screen. She doesn’t have a particularly long acting resume just yet, but her talent is evident in all of her projects.

Avantika has a couple of high-profile projects on the way that will likely help her star to rise. One is Ballerina Overdrive, which includes a group of ballet dancers on their way to an event when their bus breaks down and they find themselves in the middle of a thriller. She also has another project that she won’t just star in but executive produce for Disney+, A Crown of Wishes, inspired by the book of the same name.

10 Dance India Dance L’il Masters (2014)

As A Competitor

Avantika’s first “role” is actually in a competition series on television. She competed in the Dance India Dance L’il Masters edition for North America. The Dance India Dance series was a reality competition created for Zee TV, a privately owned Hindi Language channel broadcast in India. The format is similar to that of the US series So You Think You Can Dance in which open auditions are held before the chosen dancers compete in a variety of other dances for judges, including on their own, with partners, and as a group.

Avantika competed in a version of the show aimed at kids that featured competitors from the US, Canada, and Europe. Competitors were flown out to India to compete for the show. Avantika made it to second place on the series at just nine years old.

9 Senior Year (2022)

As Janet

Senior Year largely received mixed reviews when it was released in 2022. That’s because the movie relies heavily on nostalgia instead of celebrating the modern day in the comedy.

The movie is a starring vehicle for Rebel Wilson, who plays a woman who worked hard to become a popular cheerleader in high school, only to end up in a coma her senior year of high school. 20 years later, she wakes up and decides to return to school to get the senior year she never had.

Avantika plays one of the modern teenagers that Wilson’s character befriends after waking from the coma. Despite being billed as one of the leads in the movie, she doesn’t get much to do, and her character doesn’t get much of a chance to be fleshed out as the focus is on Wilson and those from her character’s past. It acts as a good hint at the teen roles that would be coming up for her though.

8 Tarot (2024)

As Paige

Final Destination, but with tarot cards.

In an interview with USA Today, Avantika cited horror as her favorite genre, so it’s only natural that she would appear in a horror movie at some point. She took on the role in Tarot because her “mom was super into astrology growing up, and [she] grew up very much into the occult and astrology.”

Tarot is inspired by the 1992 book Horrorscope by Nicholas Adams and sees each of the characters end up with a horoscope based on their astrological sign and the tarot card pulled for them when they try to distract themselves by playing with a tarot deck. Each of the Tarot friends starts being murdered based on that horoscope. Avantika’s Paige gets The Magician card in the tarot deck and a particularly gruesome encounter, which was likely fun for a fan of the horror genre to shoot.

The movie received mixed reviews though with some even calling it Final Destination, but with tarot cards.

Avantika actually found out she won the role of Karen in Mean Girls while working on Tarot.

7 Moxie (2021)

As A Chemistry Classmate

Moxie is a Netflix original movie that follows a teenage girl who starts a feminist zine at her school. She’s inspired by her mother’s own actions when she was in high school, but her focus on the zine causes her to lose focus on her own life and her friends at one point. Moxie earned comparisons to Mean Girls for its exposing of teen secrets and desire to break down the social heirarchy.

Avantika doesn’t have a huge role in Moxie, but the movie marks one of the stepping stones into her really breaking into American cinema. She appears as one of the main character’s classmates in the movie, and even some of her fans might not have realized she was in the movie.

The movie as a whole, however, is a great coming-of-age story that likely gave Avantika some great experience for filming on a high school set since many of her later projects would involve her as a high school or college student.

6 The Sex Lives Of College Girls (2022)

As Priya In 1 Episode

Avantika might only appear in a single episode of The Sex Lives of College Girls, but it’s a good one. She guest stars as Priya, a friend of main character Bela who visits Essex as part of a pre-frosh weekend to get to see the campus and experience the school. At first, Priya and Bela seem to pick up their friendship right where it left off, but the two end up fighting when Priya ditches Bela to go to a different party.

As it turns out, Priya is intent on reinventing herself in college, She can’t do that if Bela is constantly telling everyone around them what Priya was like in high school. It’s almost like a parallel of Avantika’s own acting trajectory as Avantika transitioned from being the ing roles, good friends, and stereotypical good students to more well rounded characters at this point in her career as well.

5 Mira, Royal Detective (2020)

As Kamala And Other Voices In 30 episodes

In addition to her live-action roles, Avantika has also appeared in a few voice-only roles. One of those is this Disney Junior series. She plays Kamala, a young girl who works in a tea shop in the series. She also, however, has lent her voice to other background characters, showing her versatility.

Mira, Royal Detective is a series about a young girl who is a commoner in a fictional kingdom inspired by India. She is appointed to become the “royal detective” by the queen after she solves a case related to the young prince. She is tasked with solving mysteries that help the kingdom as a whole, both the commoners and the royal family. Avantika’s character, Kamala, is a friend of Mira’s whom she crosses paths with in many episodes.

The show helps to encourage its young audience to think logically and use deductive reasoning to come to conclusions, just like more complicated mysteries do for adults.

4 Diary Of A Future President (2020)

As Monyca In 7 Episodes

So many of her best projects are for Disney and give much needed representation to South Asian young women in media, like this one.

Diary of a Future President has a great premise for a family-friendly series on Disney+. The show, executive produced by Gina Rodriguez of Jane the Virgin fame, follows a young Cuban American girl in middle school. The narration for the series comes from her diary as she experiences middle school and dreams of being President one day. Rodriguez plays the title character in flashforwards as President.

Avantika appears in the show for a handful of episodes in the first season as Monyca, the ex-girlfriend of the older brother of the title character. It’s not a huge role for Avantika, but it helped to cement her presence with Disney. So many of her best projects are for Disney and give much needed representation to South Asian young women in media, like this one.

The series was a great dramedy that had a small and loyal audience, but it was canceled after two seasons. It was also removed from Disney+ after cancelation, which means this is one Avantika project fans won’t be able to track down right now.

3 Big Girls Don’t Cry (2024)

As Ludo

Made for Amazon Prime, Big Girls Don’t Cry is an Indian English-language series aimed at teens. It follows a group of young Indian women at a boarding school as they experience the pressures of school, the growth of friendships, and the difficulties that come with growing up.

The series received mixed reviews from a lot of critics because it’s a large ensemble cast with only seven episodes, not allowing much time for the audience to get to know each of the characters well. There isn’t a big chance to flesh out each of those characters. Despite that, Vogue India called the series mostly “authentic” and the perfect watch for those who might have wished to attend boarding school as teens.

Avantika plays Ludo, a closeted lesbian who struggles with her sexuality while also struggling to maintain her position as captain of the basketball team. It’s a very different role for her, showing her commitment to portraying a diverse group of young female characters.

2 Mean Girls (2024)

As Karen

Her “Sexy” song is a standout from the movie because it’s both ridiculous and ridiculously entertaining, perfect for Karen’s character.

Though she’d been in quite a few projects before Mean Girls, Karen is Avantika’s breakout role. The movie adapts the Broadway musical, which adapts the Lindsay Lohan movie, which adapts a book about the social hierarchy of high school. Each version is slightly different from the last while staying true to the spirit of the story.

The musical movie received mixed reviews because it just didn’t have the same punch as the original movie, but that’s through no fault of Avantika. She’s arguably the best of the Plastics, standing out from the crowd with every airheaded comment and flick of her gaze. Her “Sexy” song is a standout from the movie because it’s both ridiculous and ridiculously entertaining, perfect for Karen’s character. She manages to make Karen bubbly, likable, and funny, while still making her the member of the Plastics who never quite seems to know what’s going on.

1 Spin (2021)

As Rhea

She’s incredibly expressive without having to say anything at all...

Karen might be Avantika’s best performance in a movie so far, but just three years before Mean Girls hit theaters, Avantika starred in her best movie so far. She led the cast as Rhea in Spin, a Disney Channel Original Movie.

Spin is unique for the Disney Channel because the cast is predominantly Indian or Indian-American, a first for the network. The movie focuses on Rhea, a teenager who lost her mom young and helps out her dad at the family restaurant. She has always loved music and creates playlists for the restaurant to use on a regular basis. That love sparks an interest in DJing when she meets a new boy at school, Max, and asks him to teach her how to spin.

Avantika proves her talent in the movie, especially in sequences that don’t even require dialogue. At one point in the movie, she stands in the middle of a crowd of people throwing colored powder for a fundraiser inspired by the Holi Festival, just watching. She’s incredibly expressive without having to say anything at all, and in just that scene, it’s clear she’s going to keep blowing people away with her talent.