Janina Gavankar (born in Joliet, Illinois) is an American actress and musician of Indian and Dutch descent. Gavankar is a classically trained pianist, vocalist, and orchestral percussionist. She majored in Theatre Performance at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

At one time, Gavankar was part of a singing group, Endera. They were signed to Universal Records and did one album and a brief tour before disbanding. She also collaborated on a project for a song called "Tell Me What" in India with Pratichee Mohapatra of Viva, Deep, and Navraaz

Gavankar has appeared in theatre, commercials, short films, independent films, as well as Barbershop and its sequel, Barbershop 2: Back in Business. Gavankar was featured in the San Francisco band Recliner's music video for their single "Float Away".

Gavankar's most notable roles are that of Papi, a promiscuous lesbian in The L Word, and Ms. Dewey, a Microsoft branded search engine who comments about the user's searches. However, Gavankar has stated that she is a far different person from her noted roles. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.