Who Am I Anyway?

“Lipika” is the Sanskrit word for “writer.” Maybe my destiny was written the day my parents named me! Then again…

Hi! I’m Lipica – a half Bengali, half Kumaoni, fully Indian-American actor, voice actor, and inclusion advocate. I was born in a small town in Indiana and raised in a small town in New Jersey, where for over a decade I studied classical singing technique at Westminster Conservatory while actively avoiding performing in public (too many eyeballs staring back). Thanks to a double-doggy dare, as a high school freshman I auditioned for and then was surprised to be cast as The Witch in the spring production of Into the Woods – a dream role before I even knew what a dream role was.

Suddenly I found myself in love: with research and character preparation, with storytelling (yes, for all those eyeballs in the dark), and most of all with the merry band of weirdos who make theatre – my found family. I earned a BFA at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, got baptized as a New Yorker in puddle water from a passing taxi, and have been working steadily ever since!

I thrive on collaboration in all mediums and have a special passion for new play development. Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of originating roles at Manhattan Theatre Club, The New Group, Mixed Blood Theatre Company, Cal Shakes, and American Conservatory Theater, among many others. On screen I’ve appeared in shows on ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, HBO, Showtime, USA, Comedy Central, and Netflix, most recently recurring on MAX’s The Girls on the Bus. I also love being behind the microphone and am grateful to work in a wonderful community of voiceover artists, specializing in English dubbing and audiobook narration. You can hear me as the narrator in the New York Times bestseller The Fall of Roe: The Rise of a New America, in the video game Starfield and English dubs of Pokémon, A Silent Voice, Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin, and so many others. Check out the RESUME/REELS and NARRATION pages to learn more about my work.

As an inclusion advocate, I co-founded the nonprofit 1497, an organization committed to supporting and uplifting artists of South Asian descent and challenging their historical exclusion from and underrepresentation in the American film and television industry. I’m also on the Steering Committee of The Asian American Performers Action Coalition (AAPAC), whose mission is to expand the perception of Asian American performers in order to increase their access to and representation on New York City’s stages, and with whom I received Tony Honors for Excellence in the Theatre in 2022. Read more about what being an inclusion advocate means to me on the ADVOCACY page.

In my spare time, I’m proud to be a National Volunteer Partner for Girl Scouts of the USA and active #UnionStrong member of AEA and SAG-AFTRA, and I enjoy traveling, birdwatching, lighting one-match campfires, doing crossword puzzles in pen, and running for inordinate amounts of time outdoors.

I love meeting and collaborating with new people, so find me on INSTAGRAM and FACEBOOK or sign up for my NEWSLETTER, and let’s get to work!