She's gotten married to long-time beau, photographer James Stenson, she's pregnant and, this spring, her six-year stint on NBC's hit medical drama ER comes to an end, as the long-running Thursday night mainstay bows out.

Of course, most of us first got to know Parminder under a different name, Jasminder 'Jess' Bhamra. It was her sensitive portrayal of the 18-year-old football-crazy daughter of Punjabi immigrants living in London, in the 2003 film Bend It Like Beckham that catapulted her to international recognition.

Though she was virtually unknown before Beckham, her work in the film immediately yielded a flood of offers. And for the last six years, Parminder Nagra has hardly looked back.