Katrina Kaif (born 16 July 1984) is a British Indian actress and former model who appears in Indian films, mainly in the Hindi-language film industry.She has also appeared in Telugu and Malayalam films. She was voted the sexiest Asian woman in the world by Eastern Eye in the years 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011. Being a British citizen, she works in India on an employment visa.
Kaif made her acting debut with Kaizad Gustad's box office failure Boom. She tasted success in 2007 with Vipul Shah's Namastey London and Anees Bazmee's Welcome. She has since appeared in films like New York (2009) and Rajneeti (2010). While the former earned Kaif her first Filmfare Award for Best Actress nomination, the latter emerged as her biggest commercial success so far.
Kaif was born to a Kashmiri indian father, Mohammed Kaif, and an English mother, Suzanne Turquotte, both of whom are British citizens. Her parents divorced when she was very young. Kaif once stated, "My dad, unfortunately, and not out of choice, has had no influence on our upbringing, on our religious or social or moral bearings." Kaif has seven siblings. From Hong Kong, she and her family moved to China, then to Japan. From there she went (by boat) to France when she was 8, and thereafter lived for a few months at a time in Switzerland, Kraków, Berlin, Belgium, and many other East European countries.Then she moved with her family to Hawaii, and eventually to her mother's home country of England. Although it is often assumed that Kaif is from London, she lived there only for three years before finally moving to Mumbai.In 2011, she confirmed she was single. 
Kaif began her modeling career at age fourteen; her first assignment was for a jewelry campaign. She continued modeling in London under a contract with the Models 1 Agency and did campaigns for houses such as La Senza and Arcadius, and even walked on the London Fashion Week.Kaif's modeling work led to her discovery by London-based filmmaker Kaizad Gustad, who gave her a part in his film Boom (2003). The film, which starred Amitabh Bachchan and Gulshan Grover, failed to make an impact. She then moved to Mumbai and was offered a number of modeling assignments, but filmmakers were hesitant to cast Kaif due to her poor command of Hindi.
In 2005, Kaif made a cameo in Ram Gopal Verma's drama Sarkar, as Abhishek Bachchan's girlfriend. The same year, she landed her first major role in David Dhawan's adaptation of Cactus Flower, Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya, where she was paired opposite Salman Khan. The film also featured Sushmita Sen, Arshad Warsi, Isha Koppikar and Sohail Khan in lead roles. Upon release, the film became a moderate success with Taran Adarsh, a prominent film critic, praising Kaif as a "complete revelation".The following year, she was paired opposite Akshay Kumar for the first time in Raj Kanwar's box-office flop Humko Deewana Kar Gaye. 
In 2007, Kaif appeared in Vipul Shah's romantic-comedy Namastey London, portraying a British Indian girl named Jasmeet "Jazz" Malhotra, alongside Rishi Kapoor, Akshay Kumar and Clive Standen. Upon its release, the film became a major hit, with Nikhat Kazmi, of the The Times Of India praising the chemistry between the leading couple.She next played a supporting role in Anil Sharma's melodrama Apne. Featuring Dharmendra, Sunny Deol, Bobby Deol, Kirron Kher and Shilpa Shetty, the film was a box-office hit.
Her first release of 2008 was Abbas-Mustan's hit action-thriller Race; she played Saif Ali Khan's secretary, Sophia, who is secretly in love with his hostile stepbrother (played by Akshay Khanna). The film also featured Anil Kapoor, Bipasha Basu and Sameera Reddy in leading roles. Despite its success, Kazmi wrote, "Katrina is too pale as the blousy secretary who comes into her own only when she gets seductive with a Touch me, kiss me tenor. "
