Padma Lakshmi

Keynote Speaker | NYT best-selling Author, Emmy Award-nominated Host & Executive Producer of Hulu’s Taste the Nation

PADMA LAKSHMI is an Emmy-nominated producer, television host, food expert, and New York Times best-selling author. She is the creator, host, and executive producer of the critically-acclaimed Hulu series Taste the Nation. Prior to her current series, she served as host and executive producer of Bravo’s Top Chef for 19 seasons, and hosted Food Network’s Padma’s Passport and Planet Food. Lakshmi is also a prolific author whose works include the cookbooks Easy Exotic and Tangy, Tart, Hot and Sweet; her memoir, the New York Times best-selling Love, Loss, and What We Ate; The Encyclopedia of Spices & Herbs culinary reference; and the children’s book Tomatoes for Neela. Lakshmi has also contributed to Vogue, Gourmet, and both British and American Harper’s Bazaar and pens a syndicated column on fashion and food for the New York Times. She began her career as a fashion model and actress, and graced the pages of Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Edition in 2023. After unknowingly suffering from endometriosis for decades, in 2009 she co-founded the Endometriosis Foundation of America (EndoFound), which launched the first interdisciplinary research facility in the country for Gynepathology, as a joint project between Harvard Medical School and MIT. Her efforts were recognized on the floor of the New York State Senate, where she succeeded in passing a bill related to teen health initiatives. The organization’s ENPOWR program has currently educated over 32,000 students about endometriosis in high schools across the state of New York. Lakshmi is also a visiting scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Artist Ambassador for immigrants’ rights and women’s rights, and a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).  In 2023, she was named one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People.