Priyanka Chopra - Born in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand to Ashok Chopra and Madhu Akhauri, both of whom are doctors, Chopra spent parts of her childhood in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, Newton, Massachusetts and Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Her mother comes from a Kayastha Bihari family settled in Jamshedpur, while her father comes from a family of Punjabi origin, settled in Bareilly.She also has a brother, Siddharth, who is eight years younger than her. Since her father was in the Army, her family frequently moved.

Chopra studied at St. Maria Goretti in Bareilly, as a young girl and later went to the United States, where she was a student at Newton North High School in Newton, Massachusetts and North Delta Senior Secondary School in North Delta before returning to India to complete high school at Army School (Bareilly). She began college at Jai Hind College in Mumbai but left after winning the Miss World pageant.

Chopra was crowned Miss India World and later Miss World in 2000. In the same year, Lara Dutta and Diya Mirza, both from India, won the Miss Universe and Miss Asia Pacific crowns, in a rare triple.

When she won the Miss World crown, she became the fifth Indian woman to win the title, and the fourth Indian woman to win in a span of seven years.

After winning the title of Miss India World and later becoming Miss World 2000, Chopra made her acting debut with the Tamil film Thamizhan (2001). Two years later, she made her Bollywood debut with Anil Sharma's The Hero: Love Story of a Spy and had her first commercial success with her second release, Andaaz from the same year, for which she won a Filmfare Best Female Debut Award. Becoming the second woman to win the Filmfare Best Villain Award for her critically acclaimed performance in Abbas-Mustan's Aitraaz (2004), Chopra later went on to deliver commercial success with films like Mujhse Shaadi Karogi (2004), Krrish (2006), her biggest commercial success so far, and Don - The Chase Begins Again (2006), establishing herself as a popular actress.