“If my life is proof of anything, it’s proof that you truly never know what your happiest life is going to look like.” And atm, our happiest life is getting to talk with the wonderful woman who said that. Enter: Anjali Bhimani (she/her), an actress, author, producer, and proud dog mom to Charley. If you’re a fan of video games, you may know her from Overwatch or Apex Legends, but if you’re a fan of TV (who isn’t?), you may recognize her from Ms. Marvel, Dead to Me, or Modern Family.

Clearly she has a multi-faceted career, one that spans from Broadway to feature films, television, video games, animation, and now a book: “If you’re struggling or feeling like you might never achieve your dreams, remember that you aren’t ever alone, so just keep moving forward and trust that the universe might bring you things you never even dreamed of yourself. And remember sunscreen—even on a cloudy day.” To hear more snippets like that one, you gotta give her book a read. For now, let’s dive into her past, her present, and what’s to come from her future.

When and how did you begin acting?
For fun, I’d say the acting bug bit me when I was about six. I wrote a little play on the playground which we then performed in front of the class and that our teacher—God bless her—turned into a whole lesson. Doing it professionally took a few more years, though. I loved acting through elementary school and junior high, doing summer programs and after school programs to get as much performing in as possible, but it wasn’t until high school that I realized this was something I could actually pursue as a career. Once I figured that out, I went to college at Northwestern, got my degree in theater, and thus began my career.

So, you always knew you wanted to be an actor?
There were short bursts of being interested in other things. In sixth grade, I declared in an autobiography project that I would be either an architect or a rock star, because clearly those two went together [laughing]. But everything paled in comparison to how much I loved performing. When I finally figured out how to follow that as a profession, there was no chance I was going to be anything else. But hey, at least I married a rock star who was almost an architect himself. So, I was a little accurate in that sixth grade project by proxy.

You’ve performed on screen, on stage, and done voice acting as well. Is there a medium you love most?
Honestly I can’t pick just one, I love them all in different ways at different times. I love the inescapable, powerful, and unpredictable energy that comes from acting in front of a live audience in the theater; I love the intimacy of on camera work where you barely have to think something for the camera to pick it up and magnify the feeling for the audience; I love voice acting where you aren’t limited to your physical body but only by your imagination. Really every medium I’ve worked in is, at its core, storytelling. And that’s what I love most—telling stories.

And now you’re an author, too! What’s your latest book about?
How important it is to tell your own stories and not keep them inside you because of some perceived lack of worth. A lot of us think, “Oh, my life is boring” or “I don’t have anything to say,” but what I realized when writing this book was that you never know how your unique way of saying something, even something that’s been said before, can affect someone. Nor do you know how important a story from your own life might be to them. The responses have been overwhelmingly positive and emotional, and it’s meant so much to know something I put into the world helped people in such huge ways.

What’s next for you professionally?
I’m heading to Tribeca to represent Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical, which is one of their interactive selections for the festival this year before it comes out on August 3rd. I have a bunch of other personal appearances lined up, and at the end of the summer/early fall we’ll be launching DesiQuest. I’m also producing and shopping around an extraordinary dark comedy called The B Word by Sabrina Besla. So I’ll be promoting all of those while recording and filming other projects behind the scenes.

What about personally?
The most important thing for me right now is to find as many pockets of time to spend with my family. My husband and I are both busy creating and traveling for work, but there’s always time to see each other, even if it means getting on a plane while I’m shooting and he’s on tour. He’s my mooring, and snuggling with him and Charley is truly my happy place, no matter where we are in the world.