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Actor

1978-08-19 · Mumbai, India · Female

9 series in the catalog

Aarti Lucica Sequeira (born 19 August 1978) is an Indian-American cook and television personality, best known as the winner of the sixth season of Food Network's reality television show, The Next Food Network Star. In 2010, after her victory, her show Aarti Party premiered on the network. Following Aarti Party, she went on to host Taste in Translation on Cooking Channel, in which she seeks out the most popular dishes from around the world. She had previously worked as a CNN news producer and in 2008 started the online cooking variety show Aarti Paarti.

Early life and education

Aarti Sequeira was born in Bombay, India, on 19 August 1978. Her family was originally from Mangalore in the state of Karnataka. She has two sisters, and grew up in a traditional Indian Catholic home. When she was still an infant, her family moved to Dubai due to better job opportunities for her father. Sequeira was educated in a primarily Indian-attended school in Dubai until age seven, when she was transferred to a British school, which was initially a challenge for her as she felt like an outsider. She participated in music-related activities at school, including choir and playing piano.

Sequeira said cooking was a large part of her family's identity, and she credits much of her culinary inspiration to her Indian cultural background and her mother's influence. She called her grandmother an "incredible, incredible cook". Sequeira's mother started keeping a recipe journal after her own mother died, which inspired Sequeira to start her own recipe journal starting at age 10. Her fondest food memories as a child were her father's weekly trips to the market for fresh fish and produce, as well as her mother's daily recipe creations. She was also exposed to cuisines of other countries, including homemade pastas in the home of her Italian best friend, and Arabian spit-roasted shawarmas her family ate every Friday. As a child, Sequeira would sometimes pretend to host a cooking show, She moved to the United States in 1996. and she was nicknamed "Showcase" because she enjoyed dancing and performing for people.

Sequeira was inspired to pursue a career in journalism after watching CNN cable news coverage of the Gulf War as a child. She aspired to work at CNN and pursue a career like that of journalist Christiane Amanpour. Sequeira graduated from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism in 2000, with a degree in Broadcast Journalism, with an adjunct major in International Relations. She worked at the school's student-run radio and television stations as a student, and spent a short time in Washington, D.C. covering the United States Congress for a local news station in Fargo, North Dakota. Sequeira described Medill as a challenging school, but said it helped make her feel tougher, more prepared for challenges, and "like I had something to offer".

Early career

Two weeks after her graduation from Medill, Aarti started worked as a production assistant for CNN in Chicago. One year later, she transferred to CNN's bureau in New York City, where she worked as a producer and helped cover the September 11 attacks, which occurred while the show she was producing was on the air. Sequeira produced stories about challenges firefighters faced after the attacks, as well as other topics like economic news. She was eventually promoted to segment producer for CNN, producing shows for the network and packages for various networks and outlets in the company.

Sequeira worked for CNN until 2003, and in 2004 moved from New York City to Los Angeles, California, to be near her husband Brendan McNamara, who was pursuing an acting career. She freelanced for CNN's Los Angeles bureau and other outlets, as well as other outlets in the city's entertainment industry, but otherwise had trouble finding work, and began to crave a different career path than journalism. She called this a difficult realization because "it felt like my very identity had vanished", but that she found some solace in cooking. Sequeira began working on the production of Sand and Sorrow, a documentary about the Darfur crisis. She began as what she called a "Girl Friday" before becoming promoted to co-producer on the documentary, which was released in 2007 on HBO. Sequeira began to develop an interest in cooking during this time, partially inspired by receiving the Joy of Cooking cookbook as a wedding gift, as well as a gift certificate her cousin gave her for a local 12-week cooking program. Her husband enrolled her at the New School of Cooking in Culver City. She competed in both levels of its professional classes, and interned for chef and restaurateur Suzanne Goin at the West Hollywood restaurant Lucques, but after the experience felt she did not aspire to own or run a restaurant, which made her start to feel "lost" and without purpose. Sequeira earned a professional certificate from the school in 2007.

A friend suggested Sequeira start a cooking show on the video-sharing website YouTube, an idea she initially regarded with skepticism. In 2008, she started an online cooking variety show called Aarti Paarti, as well as a food blog called AartiPaarti.com, which included the tagline "eat. giggle. repeat." The name "Aarti Paarti" came from her husband Brendon McNamara, who previously suggested it on a date when they were discussing possible Ben & Jerry's ice cream flavors that could include Sequeira's name. She initially found the phrase too cheesy, but he suggested it as a title when she began her online show, and she found it was a good way to help people recognize and remember her name. After filming the first segment by herself, her husband began helping her record subsequent episodes, which were filmed in the kitchen of her small studio apartment in Los Angeles. She felt comfortable working in front of the camera because she felt cooking segments were less pressure than some of the journalistic stories upon which she previously worked.

Inspired by her childhood, Sequeira prepared Indian and Middle Eastern dishes on the show, which also included brief comedic interludes and variety segments that included Sequeira playing the ukulele, belly dancing, or juggling. She said these skits helped attract viewers from different demographics to her show, including teenage boys. Sequeira also hosted cooking segments for the website GoodBite.com for about one year. Sequeira initially doubted whether a cooking show was the best use of her education and training instead of something more "serious", but a friend and producer at NBC News encouraged her and "(made) me feel like a cooking show career could impact people just as much as a good news story could -- it can inspire, it can relax, it can inform".

Sequeira said she experienced imposter syndrome in her early years making cooking videos because she had not gone to culinary school or worked in restaurants for a long period of time. Sequeira said she occasionally felt she was "not the best person for this job because I'm not your quintessential Indian", not having grown up in the country, and she described her early videos as "almost like doing an experiment; I was doing it because something in me was compelling me to do it". Sequeira openly discussed her struggles with self-doubt on her blog, which she later said helped her grow her following.

The Next Food Network Star

In part due to encouragement from her husband Sequeira auditioned to be a contestant on The Next Food Network Star, a Food Network reality television series in which the winner is awarded his or her own culinary show on the network. In 2010, Sequeira became a participant on the sixth season of the show, where she 12 contestants participated in cooking competitions and on-camera challenges. The Houston Chronicle described her as an "early fan favorite". Although Sequeira believed her experience with the Aarti Paarti online show would give her an advantage with the camera segments, she instead found them to be very…