Profile details

Menuka Pradhan

Actor

A theatre-trained actress known for socially grounded Nepali dramas, Menuka Pradhan has worked in film and on stage since her 2010 debut in *Ek Din Ek Raat*. She trained at Actor's Studio in Kathmandu, where she met theatre director Anup Baral on the set of that first film and later joined the school as a student. Her interest in performing started with school drama competitions in Chitwan, where a teacher encouraged her to join a local children's theatre group; she has credited her mother as the main inspiration behind her decision to act. She later moved to Kathmandu and began auditioning for film roles. She took a supporting part in *Purano Dunga* (2016), playing a sister-in-law in a Pokhara fishing-family drama directed by Ram Babu Gurung, and later appeared in the same director's *Saili* (2019), about Nepali workers migrating abroad for employment. She has said theatre is 'all about getting on stage and giving your best in one shot,' since there is no chance to redo a scene the way there is on a film set. Alongside film work, she has performed on stage in productions including *Kafka — Ek Adhyaya*.