JOIN USDesi girl in Hollywood
What is a common denominator for film, music, fashion and virtually every other manifestation of pop culture — whether Hollywood, Bollywood, New York, Paris, Tokyo or London? Correct answer: beautiful women in alluring poses.
Stunning Indian American actress Noureen DeWulf understands this fact as well as anyone, and she has graced her share of magazine covers, posed for publicity photos, and accommodated the desperate throngs of photographers on red carpet runways.
DeWulf, 27, has also combined her acting talent, range and commitment to
become one of the most active and sought-after television and film actresses in Hollywood today. Since her 2005 debut in the musical film West Bank Story, DeWulf has appeared in 18 theatrical and television movies, plus 13 TV series and mini-series, often in multiple episodes.
Her latest release is Breakaway, a comedy about an Indian Canadian hockey team.
Her acting roles also demonstrate a remarkable scope. DeWulf has played a Palestinian cashier working in a falafel shop (West Bank Story), a girlfriend with an attitude and a pronounced Indian accent (Ghosts of Girlfriends Past), Jennifer Lopez’s friend and pet-store employee (The Back-up Plan), and a recurring role as a nurse in the TV hospital series, Hawthorne. Many fans of the TV spy comedy-drama, Chuck, fondly recall her epic martial arts battle in a yoghurt shop with co-star Yvonne Stahovski.
“It is challenging and hard to not accept all the stereotypical roles that get thrown your way,” DeWulf said in the online entertainment magazine Buzzine. “For me, I’ve been really, really lucky because I have been able to play a lot of different parts.”
She addresses the contradictions of her strict upbringing and her Hollywood
persona with refreshing candour. “Ironically, it was because I was raised as a Muslim that I realised the value of being true to who you really are,” she said, in the fashion and entertainment magazine Details.
At the same time, she observed, “I love my heritage, both as someone who grew up as a Muslim and as an Indian — it’s part of who I am and I would never deny it.”