Andrea Jeremiah

Some Lesser Known Facts About Andrea Jeremiah

• Andrea Jeremiah spent her childhood in Arakkonam, Tamil Nadu.

  

• She started learning to play the classical piano at 8.

• Growing up in a Catholic family, she would sing in a choir, both in church and at school.

• Jeremiah was exceptionally good at studies and secured top ranks in school exams.

• She also actively participated in extracurricular activities at school.

• She grew up singing and performing in English musical theatres. At 10, she was a part of a Jackson Five-style troupe called Young Stars, which included playback singer Shalini Singh. She played the role of Dorothy in the troupe’s musical The Wizard of Oz.

• She started earning money in her later teens by recording jingles and teaching piano to kids.

• Growing up she wanted to become a psychiatrist. However, the high suicide rate among doctors led her to Jeremiah to pursue something else.

• Inspired by her father, she enrolled in a law college, but she hardly managed 3 months there before leaving the course mid-way.

• She was the President of the Student Senate at Women’s Christian College.

• She won various singing competitions at college.

• As a college student, she turned down many film offers as she had no intention of becoming an actress.

• Later, she founded the entertainment company The Show Must Go On (TSMGO), to promote live art and artists.

• She predominantly works in Tamil films, alongside Telugu and Malayalam films.

• In 2005, she entered the Tamil film industry with an uncredited role in the romantic comedy film Kanda Naal Mudhal. She played the role of a guest at the wedding.

• In 2010, she came into the limelight with the Tamil action-adventure film Aayirathil Oruvan in which she played the role of an archaeologist Lavanya Chandramouli.

  

• She was nominated for Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer – Tamil (with Aishwarya R. Dhanush) for Aayirathil Oruvan’s song Um Mella Asanthan.

• She voiced the role of Irene Claude (played by Taapsee Pannu) in the Tamil film Aadukalam (2011) and Ria (played by Ileana D’Cruz) in the Tamil film Nanban (2012) and Hema D’Souza (played by Amy Jackson) in Thanga Magan (2015)

• Andrea lent her voice to various peppy Tamil numbers like ‘Google Google’ from Thuppakki (2012), ‘Mama Douser’ from Soodhu Kavvum (2013), and ‘Engadi Porantha’ from Vanakkam Chennai (2013).

• In 2013, she rose to popularity in the Malayalam film industry with the Annayum Rasoolum in which she played the role of Anna, a Latin Christian salesgirl.

• Following the film, Andrea was rumoured to be in a relationship with her co-star Fahadh Faasil, who revealed his love for the actress during an interview. However, Andrea denied the affair and lashed out at Fahadh for making such statements. She claimed that attempts were being made to cast them in a film together, but she backed out of the film because of the rumours. She also said that she wouldn’t be doing any films with Fahadh again.

• In 2013, she starred in Tamil-Hindi bilingual Vishwaroopam in which she played the role of a secret agent named Ashmita Subramaniam, sharing the screen with Kamal Haasan.

  

• Andrea was rumoured to be dating actor Simbu after she performed a cameo along with Simbu in the Tamil film Inga Enna Solludhu (2014).

• She played the role of Madhavi, Murali’s wife who gets possessed by Selvi’s spirit, in the Tamil horror-comedy film Aranmanai (2014).

• Another prominent film of her career was Taramani (2016) in which she played the lead role of Althiya Johnson.

  

• In 2017, she performed with the Drop Squad Band, where she sang a mix of English, Hindi and Tamil numbers.

• In 2018, she played the role of Chandra, Rajan’s widower and Guna’s wife, in the Tamil crime-drama film Vada Chennai.

• In 2019, she read out from her collection of poems at the Bangalore Literary Festival. At the event, Jeremiah opened up about a past relationship with an anonymous man who pushed her into depression.

• She lent her voice for dubbing English superhero film Avengers: Endgame (2019) to Tamil, voicing the role of Scarlett Johansson.

• In 2020, Andrea released her first book Broken Wing, a compilation of poems based on her life.

• She published this book to raise funds for her NGO Sofia Trust, which aims to educate underprivileged children.

• In 2020, she starred in a theatrical production of Girish Karnad‘s play Nagamandala.

• Other commercially successful films in which she appeared include, Tadakha (2013), Endrendrum Punnagai (2013), Loham (2015), Thoppil Jopaan (2016), Aval (2017), and Aranmanai 3 (2021).

• She has a band, The Jeremiah Project. In 2022, she released her debut music album of the same name.

• She is a foodie and loves desserts.

• In an interview, Andrea shared that she used different perfumes for different roles. She said,
  

  I think I started doing this from Annayum Rasoolum . To some extent, it has worked for me. If nothing else, it is fun: You get to have a nice collection of perfumes. But I do not use the perfume after the role is done. I do use Chandra’s fragrance once in a while though.”

• In a 2022 interview, Andrea revealed that once she faced sexual harassment while travelling by bus as a child. She was 11 at that time. On the bus, a man behind her put his hand inside her t-shirt.

Andrea Jeremiah as Anna in Annayum Rasoolum (2013)

Andrea Jeremiah as Madhavi in the Tamil horror-comedy film Aranmanai (2014)

Broken Wing (2020) by Andrea Jeremiah