Melanie Kannokada's face may be picture perfect, but that's not why she won a coveted spot in a cosmetics company's ad campaign. "They didn't even see me until we were ready to shoot," explains Kannokada, '06, who showcases Bare Escentuals glittery green eye shadow in a commercial.
Instead, the firm chose its "Force of Beauty" models based on candidates' interviews, including such questions as, "What's the best gift you ever gave someone?" "We wanted to know what the women stood for," says Alison Reid, director of public relations for Bare Escentuals. "Beauty starts from the inside."
Kannokada, a former Miss India America, stood out because she took a "dramatic" career risk: In 2009, she left a lucrative business analyst position at McKinsey & Company for the far more uncertain career of an actress.
At Stanford, she had majored in mechanical engineering, was a cheerleader, served as senior class president and volunteered in India. But her only foray into the arts had been with Stanford's Bollywood dance troupe, Dil Se.
"I've learned to compete with people who've been acting since they were 5," she says. "I've had to hustle! But I wanted to follow my heart. I didn't want to live a deferred life."
Kannokada has played lead roles in two movies, including the independent film Love, Lies and Seeta. Chandra Pemmaraju, the film's writer, producer and director, feels that Kannokada's corporate background makes her a better actress. "She's used to hard work and long hours! She's also intellectual. She wants to know why her character says something."
Kannokada moved to Los Angeles in 2011. She booked a guest role on the TV show Rules of Engagement during her very first week. "My character had a British accent. I'd never done one before, so I just stayed in character all the time," she says, laughing. "The cast thought I actually was British." A guest role in the teen action drama The Nine Lives of Chloe King let Kannokada show off her black belt in Shotokan karate. "I've been very fortunate in my new career so far."
Former Stanford classmate Amit Garg, '03, MS '04, thinks Kannokada is being too modest. She volunteers with Hospital for Hope, a nonprofit Garg co-founded that is building a hospital in rural Jharkhand, India. "She just has way too many talents," he says.
Susan Fry, ’91, MA ’92, is a writer in the San Francisco Bay Area.
