Actress Melinda Shankar was born on February 18, 1992 in Ottawa, Ontario. She started acting at the age of 10, mostly working on TV commercials and print ads. She also had roles in theatre, but rose to fame for appearing as Alli Bhandari on Degrassi: The Next Generation. She also got the title role on the 2009 film How to Be Indie. She has appeared in the Disney Channel Original Movie Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars.