Wamiqa Gabbi

Wamiqa Gabbi (born 29 September 1993) is an Indian actress who predominantly works in Punjabi and Hindi films and series. She made her screen debut as a child with a brief role in the Hindi film Jab We Met (2007). She later established herself as a leading lady in Punjabi cinema with roles in the commercially successful comedy films Tu Mera 22 Main Tera 22 (2013), Nikka Zaildar 2 (2017) and its sequel Nikka Zaildar 3 (2019), as well as the crime drama Kali Jotta (2023).

Gabbi expanded into other languages with the Tamil romance Maalai Naerathu Mayakkam (2016) and the Malayalam sports drama Godha (2017). She went on to gain recognition in Hindi streaming series Grahan (2021), Mai: A Mother's Rage (2022), and Modern Love Mumbai (2022), the latter two directed by Vishal Bhardwaj. A major breakthrough came in 2023 with her acclaimed performance of an aspiring actress in the period drama Jubilee, followed by her role as a spy's wife in Bhardwaj's thriller Khufiya, which earned her a Filmfare OTT Award. She has since achieved commercial success with the fantasy film Bhool Chuk Maaf (2025).

Gabbi was born in a Punjabi family in Chandigarh on 29 September 1993. Her father Govardhan Gabbi is an author and writes in Hindi and Punjabi languages. She did her schooling at St. Xavier's School, Chandigarh, and completed her degree in Arts from DAV College, Chandigarh.

Gabbi made her film debut at the age of thirteen with a brief role in Imtiaz Ali's Hindi romantic comedy Jab We Met (2007), playing the cousin of Kareena Kapoor's character. She admitted to feeling uncertain about her future in the film industry while working on the picture, as she did not come from an acting family like Kapoor. After minor roles in Love Aaj Kal (2009), Mausam (2011), and Bittoo Boss (2012), Gabbi had her first lead role in the coming-of-age drama Sixteen (2013), portraying a teenager who enters a relationship with a significantly older man. In a review for Mumbai Mirror, Karan Anshuman commended Gabbi as "the standout" in a mediocre film. It emerged as a commercial failure, after which she admitted to almost giving up acting due to consistent rejections.

Later that year, Gabbi made her debut into Punjabi cinema alongside Amrinder Gill and Yo Yo Honey Singh in the comedy film Tu Mera 22 Main Tera 22. It was a box-office success. Her subsequent roles in the Punjabi romances Ishq Brandy (2014) and Ishq Haazir Hai (2015) generally went unnoticed. In Bhale Manchi Roju, Gabbi expanded to Telugu cinema opposite Sudheer Babu as a woman abducted on her wedding day. Made on a shoestring budget, the film was a box-office success.^{[citation needed]} She next made her debut into Tamil cinema in 2016 with the romantic drama Maalai Naerathu Mayakkam, opposite Balakrishna Kola. She was drawn to the character as it was a departure from the "chirpy" roles she had portrayed previously in her Punjabi films. Despite criticising the film's regressive themes, a critic for The New Indian Express labelled Gabbi "a talent to watch out for".

In 2017, she debuted into Malayalam cinema with the sports comedy Godha opposite Tovino Thomas. To prepare for her role as a Punjabi wrestler, she trained for the sport in Amritsar and lived with her coach for a month. In the film's climactic combat scene, Gabbi sustained physical injuries throughout her entire body. Her performance was positively received by critics including Firstpost's Anna MM Vetticad who described her as "luminous" and appreciated her accurate emulation of a professional wrestler's mannerisms. Godha emerged as a sleeper hit at the box-office. Gabbi ended the year with the commercially successful Punjabi spiritual sequel Nikka Zaildar 2, for which she earned her first nomination for Best Actress (Critics) at the Punjabi Filmfare Awards. Parahuna was Gabbi's sole 2018 release.

In 2019, Gabbi had five releases—four of which were Punjabi. She began the year as part of an ensemble that included Prithviraj Sukumaran and Mamta Mohandas in the Malayalam science fiction film 9. In a mixed review for Film Companion, Neelima Menon wrote that Gabbi was "scintillating as the mysterious stranger". She followed this with the unremarkable Punjabi features Nadhoo Khan and Dil Diyan Gallan. Gabbi returned to the Nikka Zaildar franchise for its third instalment, as a struggling poetess caught in a love triangle with Ammy Virk and Sonia Kaur's characters. Gurnaaz Kaur of The Tribune was appreciative of her addition to the film. It emerged as a commercial success. Doorbeen—a drama centred on the illegal drug trade in Punjab—cast Gabbi as the love interest of Ninja's character.

In Galwakdi (2020), Gabbi played a free-spirited woman who falls in love with a librarian (played by Tarsem Jassar) that struggles with obsessive–compulsive disorder. In 2021, she returned to Hindi cinema after eight years with Kabir Khan's sports drama 83, starring Ranveer Singh. She had a supporting role as cricket player Madan Lal's wife; Gabbi acknowledged that her role was brief but chose to sign the film regardless out of admiration for Khan. She next made her foray into streaming with the crime drama series Grahan, in which she played Manu, a Sikh girl who becomes romantically involved with a Hindu boy (played by Anshuman Pushkar) during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. Shweta Keshri of India Today wrote that Gabbi and Pushkar "do proper justice while bringing alive the 80s romance to screen", but The Quint's Shefali Deshpande bemoaned that Gabbi's "fake freckles and Instagram filter like make up" detracted from the character's authenticity and also criticised the pair's poorly written roles.