She began her modelling career in India in the early 1990s, appearing for leading Indian brands like Bombay Dyeing and Lakmé.

[5][6] Ray remains an active advocate of stem-cell therapy[7] and has participated in several successful fundraisers and cancer awareness campaigns.

[11] Ray was born in Toronto to an Indian Bengali Hindu father and a Polish Catholic mother[12] and grew up in the suburb of Etobicoke.

She spoke Polish with her maternal grandmother and watched movies of Federico Fellini and Satyajit Ray with her cinephile dad.

An advertisement for Bombay Dyeing where she appeared in a black swimsuit opposite Karan Kapoor earned Ray her first taste of public attention.

[16][17][18][19] A subsequent meeting with Maureen Wadia, editor of Indian fashion magazine Gladrags, resulted in an iconic swimsuit cover that catapulted Ray to nationwide fame in India.

[21] As one of India's most successful cover models, Ray would subsequently lend her face to iconic global brands such as L’Oréal, MasterCard, De Beers and Rado.

Past roles include a farm girl in All Hat, a school teacher in A Stone's Throw, and a housewife in 1950s-apartheid South Africa in The World Unseen.

[citation needed] After graduation, Ray based herself out of Milan, Paris, and New York from 2004 to 2008, returning to Toronto upon her mother's death in late 2008.

She guest-starred in a 2009 episode of the USA Network series Psych,[citation needed] and appeared in Woody Harrelson starrer Canadian-American superhero film Defendor.

She gave a candid interview on her personal cancer trauma and surviving it, appearing on the cover of the 2010 anniversary issue of the Indian men's luxury magazine The Man.

On 5 July 2010, Ray hosted an informal lunch for Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip during their visit to Toronto.

[36] Written by Canadian playwright John Murrell, Taj combined poetry, music, theatre, and the Indian classical dance form kathak.

[citation needed] She presented the 2011 IIFA Awards[39] in Toronto, and was a co-presenter the 2011 Giller Prize along with singer-songwriter Nelly Furtado and roots rock guitarist Robbie Robertson.