Yana Gupta was born as Synkova on April 23rd 1979 in Brno, Czech Republic. Yana, who modeled for international clients like Calvin Klein and Victoria's Secret, drew a lot of attention in the European fashion world.

Yana tied the knot with Indian painter Satyakam Gupta and came to India to try her luck in Bollywood. Yana’s easy going attitude and international look, won her various modeling assignments and she appeared on numerous magazine covers including Lakme, ELLE, Cosmopolitan and Femina. In 2001, she was named the new face for Lakme cosmetics, replacing its former model Lisa Ray. Yana has also modeled for the premier Kingfisher's calendar.

Yana made her big screen debut in the Bollywood with ‘Dum’ with the item song 'Babuji', which made her famous for cameo item numbers. Yana has since then, performed dance numbers not only in various Bollywood films, but also in Tamil and Telugu movies. She has also acted in a Kanada project.

Besides her native Czech language, Yana can also converse in Spanish, Japanese and English, and Hindi, which has been the recent addition to her list. Yana, who is a vegetarian, is a member of PETA and has also been featured in its campaigns.

Yana is currently playing the role of a TV anchor on the countdown show ‘Mirch Masala’ on ZoomTV where she grooves to famous dance numbers. The famous item number girl is now planning to launch her own music album for which she will write, compose the music and even sing the songs. All the songs will be in English, and she won't be accepting any other offers until she is done with this project.

Yana recently signed up with a leading mobile and PC games company ‘Indiagames’ as brand ambassadress and will be featured in several games and applications related to fitness, puzzles, etc.

Yana, who formally got separated from husband Satyakam Gupta on May 18th 2005, is currently dating actor Aftab Shivdasani and plans to open a chain of health stores with him.