Niharika Singh is an Indian film actress, producer and a former Miss India. Born on 31st August, 1982 in New Delhi, Niharika spent a big part of her childhood moving homes and schools in various small towns and hill stations in the north of India. Her father worked in Tourism for the government and her mother taught fashion designing. Singh was an avid reader growing up and showed a keen interest in creative writing and the performing arts. She recalls her first performance as Bharat Mata at the age of 4 in her primary school. Singh participated in children theatre workshops conducted by Sahitya Kala Parishad and performed at Kamani auditorium in New Delhi as a child artist before she was sent to an all girls boarding school in the foothills of the Himalayas. Niharika began working as a model in the year 1999 to earn a little income and after a short stint in Delhi, moved to expand her career in the entertainment business when her younger sister got through college in Mumbai. Singh participated in the Miss India beauty pageant in 2005 and won the title of Femina Miss India Earth along with subtitles for Miss Photogenic and Miss Beautiful hair. She went on to represent India at the Miss Earth pageant held in the Philippines. Singh appeared in several television commercials, print ads, music videos, fashion magazines, hosted a reality series and signed a ten-film contract with Bollywood director Raj Kanwar in 2006. The films were never made. She was then approached by singer Himesh Reshammiya and producer Bhushan Kumar to star in A New Love Ishtory to be directed by John Matthew Mathan which because of internal differences, didn't make it to the cinemas either. After a series of unreleased and shelved films, Niharika made her feature film debut in filmmaker Ashim Ahluwalia's critically acclaimed Miss Lovely which competed in Un Certain Regard at the 2012 Cannes film Festival. Singh won a nomination for the Most promising debut at the 21st Screen Awards for her portrayal of a struggling actress in the film. Niharika rediscovered cinema after her tryst with Cannes and other international festivals and joined a course at the Film and Television Institute of India to expand her interest in the medium. Niharika stepped away from public life after the release of Miss Lovely and made appearances in a few independent films over the next decade. She actively chose not to participate in any promotional activities during this period. In 2016, Niharika was selected for Berlinale Talents. She was introduced to Alexander Technique while attending a workshop with Jean Louis Rodrigue and Kristof Konrad at the Berlin Talent Campus. Singh wrote a piece addressing the MeToo-India movement in 2018 as a Dalit woman which, after being posted by a journalist on Twitter, went viral and was picked up by all leading media publications and news channels. She was subsequently invited as a guest and speaker on panels at Harvard University, Columbia University, The New School and Jawaharlal Nehru University. Niharika joined Future East as one of the directors of the company in 2019 and co-founded Future East Digital with filmmaker Ashim Ahluwalia and visual artist Amit Basak in 2020.