The Truth About Kunal Nayyar's Gorgeous Wife

Actor Kunal Nayyar plays one of The Big Bang Theory's main characters, astrophysicist Raj Koothrappali. And while he's made a name for himself with the popular show that centers on the lives of geeky characters in Southern California and their nerdy hijinks, there's quite a lot people don't know about him — and his lovely wife. Nayyar, who moved from India to the United States in 1999, married Neha Kapur in 2011, as reported by People magazine. And the pair have been by each other's sides ever since.

But Neha Kapur is far more than just a pretty face, as she's quite busy with exploits of her own. So how did she happen to meet Nayyar? Where is she from, and what kinds of talents does she have? Does she like living in her new home in Southern California? Here's everything we dug up about Kunal Nayyar's gorgeous — and exceptionally tall — wife.

Neha Kapur is truly a classic beauty, with her sophisticated grace, literate fashion sense, and perfect skin. She stands at an impressive 5'10" and sports a flowing mane of dark hair that frames her elegant face. But surprisingly, she wasn't a socially smooth schoolgirl back in the day. "I was an introvert at school," she confessed in an interview with Wearabout. "Most of my time was spent either in the library or in the painting room." While it's wonderful that she was able to nurture her creative spirit, it's kind of wild to imagine her not being the center of attention.

Kapur has her suspicions as to why she was the opposite of a social butterfly. "I also stood back in the line at school because I was the tallest," Kunal Nayyar's wife continued. "There is a connect? Anyway, it was ridiculous!" Certainly people have been bullied or left out for all kinds of silly reasons, so maybe that's why she just kept to herself.

Although Neha Kapur has relocated to Southern California to be with her husband, Kunal Nayyar, she's still very fond of her home city of Delhi. "I am biased about Delhi — [I] was born and brought up there," she revealed in an interview with Wearabout. "I think it gives one more freedom and space. It is more culturally inclined. And the most you can sit in a jam is 45 minutes and not 2 hours." Given that Los Angeles is infamous for its legendary traffic jams, you know that was a jab at her then-future adopted home. Burn!

As to where she recommends people travel in her native country? "It would be unfair to call out one city that you should see first, as India is so vast and it gives a different experience depending on which part you see first," she explained in an interview with The New Potato. But she does recommend visiting the Dalai Lama, seeing the Taj Mahal, exploring the Golden Temple in Amritsar, and scoping out the Red Fort, among traveling to other destinations. There's clearly no shortage of amazing things to see and do there.

It should come as no surprise that Kunal Nayyar's wife, Neha Kapur, was a model for quite a long time — she certainly has both the looks and the height for the profession. "I have done it for 9 years now," she recalled in a 2011 interview with Wearabout. But it's not something she wanted to do forever, as she feels that things have a shelf life. "After a point there's everything you've done ... So once you're done with all that, and the moment it starts becoming a job, it's time to move on." That's certainly a fair approach to take.

At the time, she was just about to move to Los Angeles, so she was plotting out what her next moves would be, professionally speaking. "I would love to do something in design and art, not clothes," she continued. "I'd like to get back to maybe studying art again." It sounds like she never lost the creative spirit that she nurtured while she was in school. 

In 2006, Neha Kapur won the Miss India pageant, taking home a tiara, a sash, and a bouquet of flowers. That's a serious accomplishment, given how competitive pageants are, and it's something she looks back on fondly. "Miss India was special," she shared in an interview with The New Potato. "Much against my will, my godmother (who was also my agent) made me participate, and it changed my life forever." It's pretty incredible that she went from not wanting to even participate to taking home the big prize. Congrats, Neha!

Of everything that she remembers about that big day, one special thing stands out to her as the biggest highlight. "The best memory from that day was winning in front of my parents, my godmother, and all of my closest friends," the future Mrs. Kunal Nayyar continued. "I will never forget that moment because of the love I felt in the room." It's wonderful that everyone important in her life was there to see her win. How sweet!

Sparks flew from the very beginning for Neha Kapur and her now-husband, Kunal Nayyar, literally from the second they first met at a bar. And thanks to a friend, she was in the right place at the right time. "Kunal was visiting India, and my friend called me, saying, 'Oh, this really great guy is visiting from America,'" she explained in an interview with Vogue India. "There was a party at a bar, and I saw Kunal dressed all LA, the star." He must have been an intriguing sight.

Of course, Nayyar thought Kapur was gorgeous, so he offered to buy her a drink — and thus their whirlwind romance started. "We sat in a corner at a little table with a candle for three hours," he mused. "It was amazing." After that, they spent every day together until Nayyar had to go back to Los Angeles nine days later.

Kapur came to visit him in Los Angeles three weeks after that, where it became even clearer that their romance was as serious as it gets. They really were just destined to be together!

In December of 2011, Neha Kapur and Kunal Nayyar officially tied the knot, making their burgeoning romance officially official. And even though they had been dating since late 2008, Nayyar was still totally blown away when he saw her walk down the aisle. "My favourite moment was seeing Neha for the first time that day," he gushed in an interview with Vogue India." It still gives me the shivers to think of how beautiful she looked." The romance is real, y'all!

When Nayyal said "beautiful," he didn't just mean how his bride looked — there was something much deeper going on for him. "I mean, I obviously know my wife is beautiful, the whole world knows she's beautiful," he continued. "But there was something more than physical beauty at play when she was walking. It was spiritual, she was a vision." How much sweeter can you get?

That memory is something that Nayyar will always cherish. "I'll never forget that till the day I die," he stated.

Neha Kapur and Kunal Nayyar did not hold back when it came to their nuptials, which were quite the extravagant affair. "It was six days, a thousand people ... my whole neighborhood came to the wedding," he joked in an interview with Conan. Can you imagine having a thousand people show up to your wedding? Or how much money that had to have cost? That must have been one heck of a party.

Additionally, given that the pair opted for a traditional wedding instead of a private courthouse ceremony, there were a lot of rituals they had to perform. "One of the things that we talked about is that I have to come in on the wedding day on a horse, a white horse," he continued. That made Nayyal super nervous, as the horse was being stimulated by everything going on around it. Fortunately, everything turned out just fine, and the couple were pronounced husband and wife.

Some people need to do things differently every day in order to be fulfilled. But that's not the case for Kunal Nayyar's wife, Neha Kapur, who is quite the opposite. "I am a creature of habit," she revealed in an interview with The New Potato. "My day usually begins with lighting incense and conducting prayers at the two shrines I have in the house, then making a pot of English Breakfast Tea with shortbread cookies ... and talking with my parents in India." This she does at 6:30 in the morning, followed by yoga, then breakfast at 10:30. That's a pleasant way to start the day, for sure.

The rest of Kapur's schedule is also pretty methodical as well. "I practice yoga four times a week, and every two hours I get hungry," she continued. "I spend a lot of my day behind my desk, so I always keep almonds and cranberries handy." She often also has the same thing for lunch every day, a chicken and arugula salad. Hooray for healthy habits!

It's pretty impossible to miss that Neha Kapur is quite the fashion plate, stunning every time she walks the red carpet with her husband, Kunal Nayyar. It turns out that a lot of that fashion savvy was shaped by her experiences at a specific event back in her home country. "I have some of the fondest memories from India Fashion Week," she recalled in an interview with The New Potato. "This is where my love for fashion grew, and I made some of the closest friends I have today." We knew she had top-tier style sense.

For Kapur, the event is especially inspiring because of the people who attend it, making it quite the style incubator. "It is such a creative space, full of young designers, and veterans," she continued. "It was a great platform to launch into the world of fashion for me, and it continues to grow even today for young talent." Look out, New York Fashion Week — there's real competition out there.

In 2014, Neha Kapur was ready to share her new creative endeavor with the world. "Follow my wifey's new design label @designbykyo on Instagram," husband Kunal Nayyar said in a tweet (via Heavy). "Bespoke women's clothing hand stitched!" Way to rep for your sweetie's hustle, Kunal!

But it was Nayyar's design label Hensely that ended up being her primary fashion brand. Inspired by her cultural identity, she debuted the brand in the fall of 2016. "My upbringing was classical in terms of music and Indian dance — how my parents were at home," she shared in an interview with Vogue magazine. "I wanted to put together something that mixed my Eastern sensibility with something that had a kind of storytelling behind it, because that's what dance is." So the brand is very personal for her, and it's inspired by her relationship with the world.

Kapur stopped updating the brand's Instagram page in the fall of 2018, and, at the time of this writing, its website appears to no longer be active. Perhaps Kapur took a hiatus, or maybe she's working on her next big thing. We'll see!

When it comes to who Neha Kapur's style icon is, she doesn't hesitate to give an answer. It's her mother, 100 percent. "You will always find her in the most beautiful Sarees," she gushed in an interview with The New Potato. "Even today she takes extra care in dressing up. She always has a flower in her hair, and she always matches the color of her Bindi to her Saree." Maybe that's where she inherited her amazing accessorizing game? It's possible because mom has that on lock down, fam.

Her mother doesn't just grab things off of the rack, either, or rely on someone else to help her find the best of the best that's out there. She's actually legit connected to the fabric industry where she lives. "She knows all the various different textiles and embroideries from all different states in India," Kunal Nayyar's wife continued. "She is always on the hunt for something that reflects her self-assured personality." Clearly mom's got it going on in the style department.

Once the wedding celebration was over, it was time for Neha Kapur to move to Los Angeles permanently... and time for Kunal Nayyar to vacate his bachelor pad in favor of a home they would share together. The newlyweds had purchased a 1948 Spanish hacienda, and initially Nayyar was anxious about how they would furnish their new home. "What will we do with this space?" he wondered in an interview with Architectural Digest. But fortunately for him, Kapur knew what to do. "Neha being very cultured and having a very good eye, she saw this vision of the place," he shared.

To that end, with the help of designers, they got to working on making their house a home with the intent to make it "an amalgamation of the country we live in and the country we're from and the places we've traveled," he continued. "We want this to be a story of our journey." That sounds amazing!

The couple also prioritized having an indoor-outdoor energy that flowed seamlessly. "We wanted to have this living, breathing energy," Kapur added, "so you see a lot of plants inside, and there's a Buddha inside and outside." What a mindful approach.

For Neha Kapur, when it comes to food, there's only one thing on the menu that qualifies as her absolute favorite: sushi. "Sushi for breakfast, sushi for lunch and sushi for dinner," she revealed in an interview with The New Potato. "If it were up to me, I would end every day with sushi." We like the way Kunal Nayyar's wife thinks! It's healthy, tasty, and certainly as versatile as it gets.

Of course, Kapur eats more than just sushi; she has granola and yogurt for breakfast and the aforementioned arugula salad for lunch. She and her husband also enjoy making homemade Indian food, something they both miss from their home country. "I love making simple yellow lentils with Basmati white steamed rice, and old school dry Indian potatoes," she continued. "Kunal makes the meanest Lamb Keema (minced lamb curry) and kebobs. I always overeat when he cooks." That sounds super tasty. 

You can learn a lot about a person by asking them who they'd have over, living or dead, for a dinner party. So when asked about this in an interview with The New Potato, Kunal Nayyar's wife, Neha Kapur, first shared the deceased people she would invite. "I would like to invite my paternal Grandfather who loved to write and was a philosopher, and my maternal Grandfather who was the first Lt.Governor of Delhi, both of whom I never met," she shared. They sound like they were phenomenal individuals.

As for her living choices, she picked an eclectic mix. "I would invite my husband Kunal (who I admire, love and respect immensely)," she continued. Awww! She'd also invite Shekhar Kapur, a film director, and LeBron James, whom she calls "the best athlete to have ever lived." 

What would be on the menu? "I would definitely cook up a storm of Indian delicacies, or just order in, so I get to spend more time with all of them," Kunal Nayyar's wife added. That would definitely be a memorable evening!