Huma Qureshi (born 28 July 1986) is an Indian actor who works mainly in Hindi films and web series. She came to notice in Anurag Kashyap’s two-part crime saga Gangs of Wasseypur in 2012 and has since built a varied career in mainstream films, independent cinema and streaming, where she plays the unlettered housewife who becomes Chief Minister of Bihar in the long-running series Maharani.
Quick Facts
| Full name | Huma Saleem Qureshi |
| Born | 28 July 1986, New Delhi, India |
| Age | 40 |
| Occupation | Actor, producer, author |
| Years active | 2012–present |
| Known for | Gangs of Wasseypur, Dedh Ishqiya, Badlapur, Maharani |
| Education | Gargi College, University of Delhi (B.A. History) |
| Relatives | Saqib Saleem (brother) |
Early Life
Qureshi was born in New Delhi to Saleem Qureshi, who runs the Saleem’s chain of kebab restaurants in the city, and Ameena, who is from Kashmir. She has three brothers, one of whom, Saqib Saleem, is also an actor. She studied history at Gargi College and joined the Delhi theatre group Act One, working with directors such as N. K. Sharma, and helped on documentaries for voluntary organisations.
Career
She moved to Mumbai in 2008 and signed a two-year contract to appear in advertisements for Hindustan Unilever. She featured in commercials with Aamir Khan and Shah Rukh Khan, and it was on the set of a mobile phone advertisement that the director Anurag Kashyap noticed her and offered her a three-film deal. Her first film was Gangs of Wasseypur (2012), in which she played Mohsina, the film-struck wife of the gangster played by Nawazuddin Siddiqui. The film was shown at the Cannes Film Festival, and she received Filmfare nominations for best debut and best supporting actress.
She followed it with Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana, the supernatural thriller Ek Thi Daayan, the spy film D-Day and Abhishek Chaubey’s Dedh Ishqiya (2014), in which she held her own opposite Madhuri Dixit and Naseeruddin Shah. Sriram Raghavan’s Badlapur (2015) and the courtroom comedy Jolly LLB 2 (2017), with Akshay Kumar, were commercial successes. She appeared in Gurinder Chadha’s British film Viceroy’s House, in the Tamil films Kaala, with Rajinikanth, and Valimai, and in Zack Snyder’s Hollywood zombie film Army of the Dead (2021).
After the dystopian Netflix series Leila (2019), directed by Deepa Mehta, she took the role of Rani Bharti in Maharani (2021), a SonyLIV drama set in 1990s Bihar about a homemaker who is made Chief Minister when her husband is shot. The series has run for four seasons and is the work for which she is now best known. She also starred in the dark comedy Monica, O My Darling, played the cookery writer Tarla Dalal in Tarla (2023) and was the antagonist of the third season of Delhi Crime (2025).
With her brother she produced Double XL (2022), a comedy about body-shaming in which she co-starred with Sonakshi Sinha. Her first novel, Zeba: An Accidental Superhero, was published in 2023.
Personal Life
Qureshi lives in Mumbai. She has spoken frequently about being told early in her career to lose weight and about refusing to be defined by her size. During the Covid-19 pandemic she raised funds with an international charity to set up a temporary hospital in Delhi.
Selected Filmography
Frequently Asked Questions
When and where was Huma Qureshi born?
Huma Qureshi was born on 28 July 1986 in New Delhi, India and is 40 years old.
What is Huma Qureshi known for?
Known for: Gangs of Wasseypur, Dedh Ishqiya, Badlapur, Maharani.
Featured image: Huma Qureshi at the 18th IIFA Awards, MetLife Stadium, New Jersey, July 2017. Photo by Laura Lee Dooley, licensed under CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
