Early work and debut (2012–2015) After her studies, Kaur moved to
Mumbai and worked as a print model. She began working as a theater actress, appearing in plays such as
Baghdad Wedding (2012),
All About Women, and
Red Sparrow, working with directors like
Sunil Shanbag and Manav Kaul. Kaur was launched on screen in a two-part music video for the songs "Tera Mera Pyar" by
Kumar Sanu and "Yeh Kya Hua" by
Shreya Ghoshal in 2004. The videos were directed by writer-editor
Apurva Asrani. She also did TV advertisements. Kaur made her film debut with a small role in an English film,
One Night with the King (2006), which was shot in
Rajasthan. Her Hindi film debut came with
Peddlers in 2012, produced by
Anurag Kashyap. The film was screened at Cannes Film Festival to good reviews. Kaur came to public attention in India when she appeared in a mid-2013
Dairy Milk Silk commercial. In 2013, Kaur also came to wider attention with her co-lead role in the
epistolary romantic film
The Lunchbox, when it aired at the Cannes Film Festivalher second consecutive appearance at Cannes. The film was a commercial and critical success, with Kaur receiving rave reviews for her portrayal of a lonely wife who begins a friendship with a stranger (
Irrfan Khan) through letters in a
tiffin carrier, (initially) mistakenly delivered to the stranger by a
dabbawala. Jay Weissberg of
Variety called her a "radiant presence", while
Pratim D. Gupta of
The Telegraph wrote that "Nimrat strips off all the sentimentality to attach dignity and grace to the character. This one's a sparkling debut." In 2014, Kaur appeared as ISI agent
Tasneem Qureishi in the
fourth season of the American TV series
Homeland.
Career expansion (2016–present) In 2016, she acted in the war drama
Airlift, alongside
Akshay Kumar. The film was a financial success. Kaur also began portraying Rebecca Yedlin in the second season of the American television series
Wayward Pines in 2016. In 2017, Kaur starred as Captain Shikha Sharma in the
Hindi web series The Test Case and received positive response. She returned for the
eighth and final season of
Homeland as a series regular in February 2020. A Harini Prasad of
The New Indian Express commented on her "commendable acting chops" and the "positive response" she has received for her work in the final season. After a four year hiatus, Kaur co-starred in the 2022
Netflix film
Dasvi, playing Haryana's CM alongside
Abhishek Bachchan. Grace Cyril of
India Today reviewed the film and stated, "Though Nimrat Kaur's character in
Dasvi was confusing, she lit up the film with her performance." In 2023, she portrayed
Yanna Seldon in the second season of the science fiction series
Foundation. In the same year, she played School counsellor in the web series
School of Lies. She played an inspector in
Sajini Shinde Ka Viral Video, her final work of the year.
Saibal Chatterjee of
NDTV praised her and said, "It is Nimrat Kaur who saves the day with a solid, admirably consistent performance as the investigator who has much more on her plate than just a case of a missing girl." Kaur next appeared in the 2025 film
Sky Force, in her second collaboration with Akshay Kumar after
Airlift (2016), and season three of the television series
The Family Man. ==Filmography==