Shenaz Treasurywala

Biography

Shenaz Treasurywala or Shenaz is an Indian model, travel writer, and actress.

Discovered by a photographer during her first year in college, her first modelling assignment was for the soft drink Gold Spot. She also did advertising work for Akai and Philips before MTV Networks Asia hired her to work as a VJ on the MTV?s Most Wanted program. Her acting debut was in the 2003 Bollywood film Ishq Vishk, which earned Shenaz a nomination for the best supporting actress award by the Filmfare Film Awards. With her life-long love of travel, she has written travel articles for Cosmopolitan, ELLE, and Femina. Shenaz currently resides in Mumbai, India and serves as the host of Culture Shock on the Travel Channel.

The daughter of a merchant marine, she was born to a middle class Gujarati-speaking Parsi family. At age 14 Shenaz was enrolled in school at Mumbai, where she also later attended St. Xavier?s College. In 2001, Shenaz moved to New York City where she studied method acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. While in New York, she also took a writing course at NYU. Her favourite hobbies include jet skiing, travel, and photography.

While on Christmas break from the Lee Strasberg Institute, Shenaz returned to India to visit her family, however en route, Kuwait Airways lost all of her luggage, including the travel documents she needed in order to return to classes in the United States. During the four months that she was in India, Shenaz was offered a leading role in Ishq Vishk after meeting director Ken Ghosh at a Mumbai night club. One of her ambitions is to host a travel show.