Nikita Chaudhry is an actor, dancer, singer, and activist based between New York and Los Angeles. Born and raised in Baltimore, MD, she graduated from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in three years time.
As a dancer, her experience includes but is not limited to, contemporary, hip-hop, musical theater, jazz, ballet, pointe, modern, tap, Bollywood and bhangra. Additionally, Nikita trained in Williamson, Suzuki, Alexander, and Grotowski movement techniques and has also choreographed award-winning solo and group pieces. Vocally, she has had the privilege of working with various instructors and performing on cabaret stages, but is most proud of her morning shower and evening car ride solos.
In accordance with the arts, Nikita has a deep-rooted passion for social change, justice, and public policy. Engaging in intersectional activism at a young age, followed by taking lead in creating programs and conversations around race and diversity in high school and college, she continues to learn more through her advocacy work, organizing, employment, and daily life. Most notably, she co-organized the Women's Convention in Detroit, as a part of the the Women's March national staff, and most recently campaigned with Nithya Raman for LA City Council and Chalo Vote, a non-profit mobilizing South Asian American voters for the 2020 election. She currently serves on the board of SAALT (South Asian Americans Leading Together) and consults with Inspire Justice.
As a first generation South Asian American, by way of diaspora from India and England, Nikita grew up understanding the world through a multicultural perspective. She believes that as an artist, she is inherently an activist, and that our role as artists is to challenge and influence the public cathartically, and hence be a catalyst for change, action, and policy.
Along with earning a BFA in Drama, Nikita minored in Performance Studies and completed an Honors Certificate in Theatre Studies. Her thesis, "Brownness & Belonging," concentrated in the representation of South Asian American women on U.S. mainstream stages. Her Performance Studies capstone explored the ways in which we embody ancestry and diasporic experience in our movement. She has used this education to facilitate workshops in art and resistance, specifically exploring dance and spoken word as a form of solo storytelling.
She teaches fitness (speciality being boxing and kickboxing) alongside her acting and organizing career. She’s interested in decolonizing the fitness/movement space in order to include all bodies, levels, backgrounds, and identities.
Most importantly, she is friendly, fun, bubbly, and utterly hilarious (…she likes to think so). She strives to collaborate and develop with like-minded artists, creating work that will ultimately reimagine culture and politics for collective liberation.