Jacqueline Fernandez (born 11 August 1985) is a Sri Lankan actress, former model, and the winner of the Miss Universe Sri Lanka pageant of 2006 who predominantly works in Bollywood. In 2009, she debuted in Bollywood with the movie Aladin and since then has established a career in the industry. Born into a multiracial family of Canadian, Sri Lankan, and Malaysian descent, Fernandez was raised in Bahrain. After graduating in mass communication from the University of Sydney and working as a television reporter in Sri Lanka, she joined the modeling industry. She was crowned Miss Universe Sri Lanka in 2006, and represented her country at Miss Universe 2006.
While on a modelling assignment in India in 2009, Fernandez successfully auditioned for Sujoy Ghosh's fantasy drama Aladin, which marked her acting debut. Fernandez had her breakthrough role with the psychological thriller Murder 2 (2011), her first commercial success. This was followed by glamorous roles in the commercially successful ensemble-comedy Housefull 2 (2012) and the action thriller Race 2 (2013), which garnered her an IIFA Award for Best Supporting Actress nomination. Fernandez went on to star in the top-grossing action film Kick (2014) and the comedies Housefull 3 (2016) and Judwaa 2 (2017).