Annet Mahendru

Anita Devi "Annet" Mahendru (born November 5, 1985) is an American actress. She is known for playing Nina Sergeevna Krilova on the FX period drama series The Americans (2013–2016), for which she garnered a nomination for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2014 and as Jennifer "Huck" Mallick in the AMC series The Walking Dead: World Beyond in 2020. Early life and education Mahendru was born on November 5, 1985, in Kabul, then in the DR Afghanistan. Her mother, Olga, is Russian, and her father, Ghanshan "Ken" Mahendru, is a Punjabi Hindu Indian educator and journalist with roots from Delhi, did his studies from Kabul University and later met her mother in Russia where he was working. The Mahendru family had moved to Afghanistan where her grandfather had a sweets business in Kabul and her grandmother originally hailed from Nepal. She had what she calls a "gypsy" childhood, spending her first seven years of her childhood between Afghanistan and Saint Petersburg. She then lived with her mother at Saint Petersburg and regularly travelled between there and Frankfurt, before moving with her father to East Meadow, New York, at age 13, after her parents separated. Mahendru attended East Meadow High School, where she was active in competitive cheerleading and kick line teams; she graduated in 2004. She went on to earn an English degree from St. John's University in New York City. Mahendru grew up speaking Persian, Russian, German, English, and also speaks conversational Hindi and French. She also uses Dari to speak with her relatives. She initially wanted to use what she has called her "ethnic ambiguity" to work for the United Nations. She was enrolled at New York University for a master's degree in international relations as she wanted to work for the women in Afghanistan, but dropped out to pursue acting. She then moved to Los Angeles and studied improv at The Groundlings.