Diana Penty (born 2 November 1985) is an Indian model and actress who made her film debut in Homi Adajania’s Cocktail.
Diana Penty was born in Mumbai to a Parsi father and a Christian mother. Penty has completed her Bachelors degree in Mass Media from St. Xavier’s College in Mumbai. Penty has recently stated that she is retiring from her modelling career as she now wants to concentrate on her films.
Diana started her career as a model, walking the ramp for Italian designers Trussadi and Ferre during the Indo-Italian Festival in September, 2005. Since then, she has worked with top designers such as Rina Dhaka, Rohit Bal and Wendell Rodricks.
She rose to fame after becoming the brand ambassador of Maybelline, replacing Deepika Padukone. She began her stint at Maybelline with the launch of the New White Stay UV fashion range. Later on, she began to work with such young notables as Devanshu Pahuja and Nikhil Kumar. She has appeared in a number of advertisements, including an ad for Virgin Mobile, with Ranbir Kapoor and Genelia D’Souza. As well, Penty has been featured on several magazine covers.She is also in advertisement of garnier.
Penty was originally slated to make her Bollywood debut in 2011 with Imtiaz Ali’s Rockstar opposite Ranbir Kapoor, though she was dropped from the project and replaced by Nargis Fakhri. Although, she was later signed on to Homi Adajania’s Cocktail instead; at Ali’s suggestion. Cast alongside Saif Ali Khan and Deepika Padukone.
Penty portrayed the character of Meera Gupta, a simple Indian girl with traditional values. Released on 13 July, Cocktail is a blend of friendship, fashion and love. It received mixed reviews. However, Penty’s performance in the film was extremely well received and has resulted into a rapid rise in her fan following. Nikhil Ravishanker of Mutiny.in writes, “Model Diana Penty, in her debut movie, has come out on top. Her portrayal of a simple Indian girl’s transition from being an awkward introvert to a mature romantic will definitely touch viewers’ hearts”. Sonia Chopra of Sify stated, “Diana Penty is a talent to look out for. She, thankfully, is modeling import who can act”.
Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama wrote, “Diana, who makes her acting debut, gets to portray a rather difficult character for her debut film. There’s a very disarming kind of innocence that she brings to the role and she impresses a great deal.” Noted writer Shobha De has said “Diana Penty’s debut rates amongst the best in recent times. Not only is the girl absolutely lovely but she can act! Nobody expects actual acting prowess from our lissome models – well, here’s one with a terrific future.” Also, the film opened to an excellent response at the domestic box office.
