For Birva Pandya, acting began long before television sets and audition rooms. It began at home, with Bollywood films playing in the background and her and her sister recreating scenes and dance numbers. Years later, the Indian-Canadian performer from Toronto found herself in a very different fictional world of The Handmaid’s Tale, the popular American dystopian drama made for Hulu, the US streaming platform owned by Disney.
Based on Margaret Atwood’s acclaimed novel, the series is set in Gilead, a totalitarian regime that has taken control of parts of the United States and stripped women of their basic rights. Fertile women are forced to become “Handmaids”, in other words, reproductive surrogates for powerful families. It is this unsettling world that Birva entered through The Testaments, the continuation of the original series set 15 years later. The first season of the series has just got wrapped after enjoying great success.
Acting milestones of a rising star
At 21, Birva has already built a career across animation, Canadian television, films and international streaming productions. She began with the voice of Jyoti in The Magic School Bus Rides Again, followed by appearances in shows such as Odd Squad, Ransom and Northern Rescue. She went on to projects including Minority Report, Level 16 and Night Raiders, before appearing in Transplant and Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy. More recently, she has been seen in MGM+’s The Institute. Then came her most prominent role yet, Miriam in The Testaments, Hulu’s continuation of The Handmaid’s Tale.
It is a career that has grown steadily rather than through one overnight breakthrough, and Birva’s Indian roots are an important part of that journey. Her family hails from Ahmedabad, while she grew up in Toronto, carrying influences from both worlds into her life and work.
A performer from the very beginning
Birva’s interest in performing was not something that arrived with her first audition. She says she was putting on shows as a child, long before she understood acting could become a profession.
“I’ve never hesitated at any opportunity to perform,” she recalls in an interview at Grazia, remembering how she would steal her father’s video camera to make videos at the age of five and create skits with friends during recess.
Eventually, her parents realised that performing was more than a passing childhood phase. They supported her in taking acting classes and later attending a performing arts high school. That early encouragement became the foundation for a career that has now taken her from children’s animation to international television.
From Bharatanatyam to Bollywood
Birva’s connection with Indian culture goes beyond her family background. Dance was one of the ways that culture became part of her upbringing. She began with Bharatanatyam before moving on to ballet and jazz. Her parents, she says, raised her with cultural values that encouraged her love for the arts.
“Many of our traditions also surround performance and storytelling,” she says. That combination of Indian cultural influences and Western performing arts training has given Birva a rather broad foundation. She later trained in Bollywood dance at the Shaimak Davar International Dance School and continued studying acting, movement and voice-over in Toronto.
For an Indian audience, there is a familiar thread in this story. Many children of Indian families growing up abroad encounter Indian culture through dance, music, films and family traditions. For Birva, those influences eventually became part of her professional identity.
Her career began on a magical school bus
Birva’s first major screen opportunity came through voice acting. She voiced Jyoti in The Magic School Bus Rides Again, an animated revival of the popular children’s series. The character’s South Asian background gave Birva an immediate personal connection to the role. It was also an early opportunity to learn how to create a character using only her voice.
From there, her résumé steadily expanded. She appeared in Odd Squad, Ransom and Northern Rescue, followed by projects including Minority Report, Level 16 and Night Raiders. She later appeared in NBC’s Transplant and Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy, and more recently in MGM+’s The Institute.
Alongside acting, she has also worked on commercials for Cisco, the Toronto Public Library and Maple Leaf Foods.
Growing up while building a career
Birva’s career has developed alongside her education, something that has required a fair amount of juggling. Her parents made one thing clear when she was a child actor. Acting could continue, but her education could not suffer.
“I’d get used to skipping school but still bring home A’s,” she says. That balancing act became even more complicated while she was filming The Testaments. She was completing her final university examinations in California and would sometimes study on planes between commitments.
“It felt like I was living a double life,” she recalls. It is a revealing detail about the reality behind a young actor’s career. While audiences see the finished performance on screen, there is often another life of classes, exams, travel and deadlines happening alongside it.
Entering the world of Gilead
Birva’s biggest role so far came with The Testaments, which takes place 15 years after the events of The Handmaid’s Tale. The original series, starring Elisabeth Moss as June Osborne, followed the rise and resistance against Gilead, a regime where women are denied basic freedoms and fertile women are forced into reproductive servitude.
The original show concluded after six seasons in 2025, with June’s daughter Hannah still trapped in Gilead. The Testaments moves the story into the next generation. Birva plays Miriam, a young woman who has been raised entirely within Gilead’s system. She is loyal to her friends and her beliefs, and her understanding of the world is shaped by the rules she has grown up with.
Birva says much of her preparation happened naturally during the audition process because she felt comfortable with the character and the world. For Miriam, however, that world begins to change when something she has spent her entire life preparing for suddenly falls apart. That allows the character’s vulnerability to emerge.
A role with responsibility
Joining a series with an established global audience could have been intimidating, particularly for a young actor. Birva says there was pressure, but she also viewed the opportunity as a privilege.“I feel so honoured to have been a part of a story that means so much to so many people,” she says.
Working alongside an experienced ensemble of actresses also became part of her education. She says she learnt considerably from the cast and felt increasingly confident in the story as filming progressed. The new series also gave her another connection to her own background.
Why South Asian representation matters
In Gilead, questions of family background and lineage take on particular significance. For Birva, that made the presence of South Asian performers especially meaningful. “I believe representation is important for a show as this one,” she says, adding that the diverse cast made her feel empowered to see the story through a broader cultural lens.
Her own journey reflects why representation can matter. Growing up in Canada while remaining connected to Indian culture gave her multiple reference points for performance. And she has not forgotten where some of her artistic inspirations come from.
Waiting for what comes next
The first season of The Testaments has now wrapped, but Birva’s journey with the series may not be over. For now, she is still studying, working on passion projects of her own and waiting to find out what comes next for Miriam.
“I’m still in school currently, managing some passion projects of my own, and excitedly awaiting Season 2 of The Testaments, just like everybody else,” she says. For an actor who started by performing into her father’s video camera at five, it is a fitting stage of the journey. The career is growing, the Indian connection remains strong, and like viewers of The Testaments, Birva herself is waiting to see what the next chapter brings.
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