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Govindini Murty More at IMDbPro »

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Govindini was born in Manipur, India. Her father was an author and senior official in the Indian government. Her mother is a Canadian anthropologist. Her parents met at Oxford, where her mother did her Ph.D. Govindini moved to Canada when she was seven. When Govindini was fifteen, she lived a year on the island of Borneo, Malaysia. She accompanied her mother on research trips into the rain forest and stayed in the longhouses of former headhunting tribes. Govindini next received a scholarship to attend Yale University, where she wrote a column for the Yale Daily News, and served as Chair of the Women's Caucus and Vice-Chair of the Independent Party of the Yale Political Union. She graduated from Yale with a BA in East Asian Studies in 1997. Govindini went on to pursue acting in Vancouver, then L.A., working in independent films, TV, commercials, and theater. She has done commercials for companies such as Allstate Insurance, Staples, and General Electric. In 2001 Govindini was a member of the Long Beach Shakespeare Company and played numerous roles, including Miranda in "The Tempest." Other stage roles include Lady Nijo in "Top Girls" and Margot in "Dial "M" for Murder," for which she won a Best Actress Award. In 2002 Govindini acted in her husband Jason Apuzzo's controversial short "San Pedro" which became the most-watched student film of 2002 on ifilm.com. From 2003-2004 she wrote and acted in the independent feature "Terminal Island," also directed by Jason Apuzzo. Irvin Kershner, director of "The Empire Strikes Back" mentored Govindini and Jason on "Terminal Island." In July of 2004, Govindini co-founded the Liberty Film Festival along with Jason Apuzzo. In January of 2005, Govindini and Jason Apuzzo co-founded the popular film blog Libertas, which A.O. Scott of the New York Times has called "insightful as well as provocative," and which Patrick Goldstein of the LA Times has called "a must read." As a result of the success of the Liberty Film Festival and Libertas, Govindini has become an in-demand commentator on film, appearing often on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, BBC, Bravo, ABC's "Ebert & Roeper," AMC's "The Movie Club, and numerous national radio talk shows. She has also had her columns on film published in the LA Times, New York Daily News, Human Events, NewsMax, and Fugue Magazine. In 2007, Govindini co-hosted (with Richard Roeper) an episode of ABC's "At the Movies with Ebert & Roeper," the most popular movie review show in America.

Trivia

She was named after the Hindu god Govinda. Her last name Murty is Sanskrit for "the image of the god."

Govindini speaks English, French, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, and some Hindi and Malay. She has also studied Latin, and spoke Bengali and Manipuri as a child.

Frequently appears on Fox News, Fox News' "The O'Reilly Factor," MSNBC's "Scarborough Country," CNN, BBC, Bravo, Fox 11 News LA, The Michael Medved Show, The Laura Ingraham Show, The Larry Elder Show, The Michael Reagan Show, The Tammy Bruce Show, The Al Rantel Show, The Jim Hirsen Show and numerous other conservative talk shows.

A co-founder of the conservative film festival called Liberty Film Festival.

Personal Quotes

"The Liberty Film Festival was founded to celebrate free speech, patriotism, religious freedom and democracy by providing a forum in the heart of Hollywood for conservative and libertarian filmmakers."

"I wish that film makers today would stick to entertaining people and leave out the gratuitous political jabs."

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