Samantha Ruth Prabhu born On 28 April 1987 to a Malayali mother and a telugu father, Samantha was raised in Pallavaram in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, as the youngest child of the Prabhu and Ninette family and two older brothers Jonathan and David, while fluent in Tamil. language. Despite her mixed regional background, Samantha cited that she sees herself as a Tamilian, as she was raised speaking Tamil and English at home. As part of her studies, Samantha was educated at Holy Angels Anglo-Indian High School and then graduated from Stella Maris College in Chennai with a degree in Commerce. Towards the end of her bachelor’s degree, she embarked on modeling, including working with Naidu Hall, through which she was spotted for the first time by filmmaker Ravi Varman.

She has established a career in the Tamil and Telugu film industries, and is a recipient of several awards including four Filmfare Awards. She has emerged as a leading actress in the South Indian film industry

While pursuing a degree in commerce, Samantha worked part-time on modelling assignments. She soon received offers for film roles, and made her acting debut in Gautham Menon’s critically acclaimed Telugu romance film, Ye Maaya Chesave (2010), which fetched her the Filmfare Award for Best Debut Actress and a Nandi Award. Samantha then became the second actress ever to win both the Filmfare Award for Best Tamil Actress and the Filmfare Award for Best Telugu Actress in the same year, for her performances in the films Neethaane En Ponvasantham (2012) and Eega (2012). Since then, she has primarily opted to appear in the leading female role in hero-centric Telugu and Tamil films, earning box office success with films including Dookudu (2011), the family dramas Seethamma Vakitlo Sirimalle Chettu (2012) and Attarintiki Daredi (2013) and AR Murugadoss’s Tamil action film, Kaththi (2014). Her work in the film A Aa (2016) also won positive reviews and won Samantha her fourth Filmfare Award, while her next films Theri (2016), 24 (2016) and Mersal (2017) also were commercially successful.

Alongside her acting career, Samantha is a prominent celebrity endorser for brands and products, while she also started her own NGO, Pratyusha Support, to provide medical support for women and children in 2012. She donates her earnings from endorsements, product launches and inauguration events to support the foundation.

Samantha suffered from an extended period of illness in 2012, which saw her having to opt out of big film projects and take a two-month break from acting. She suffered from an immunity disorder and then had a further setback after her body did not respond well to antibiotics.

She began dating actor Naga Chaitanya in 2015 and the pair were engaged in a ceremony in Hyderabad during January 2017. She got married as per Hindu traditional customs on 6 October 2017 and then by Christian customs on 7 October 2017 in Goa, and became a member of the Akkineni family. Since then she has been using her married name Samantha Akkineni.