Manju Bangalore is a physicist, actor, poet, and the founder of two nonprofits.

Manju received her B.S. from the University of Oregon in physics with a minor in math. During her undergraduate career, Manju worked at two NASA centers, Marshall Space Flight Center and Johnson Space Center, on propulsion and the cockpit displays for the Orion spacecraft, as well as in the White House under President Obama on science policy. She has dreamed of becoming an astronaut since she was four years old.

Outside of her scientific career, Manju is also an actor. She has been acting since she was 10 years old and has since been in a Super Bowl commercial and two Microsoft commercials. Her favorite experience onscreen so far has been working with Beyoncé on the set of Black Is King for the Brown Skin Girl music video.

Manju founded Operation Period, a youth-led, all-volunteer menstrual health nonprofit in 2015. To date, the organization has provided more than 200,000 menstrual products to those in need. In 2020, Manju founded a second nonprofit, Painting With Parkinson’s, to provide free painting kits and art classes to those affected by Parkinson’s in honor of her father who has been battling Parkinson’s for over a decade.

She was crowned Miss World California in 2019 and spent her reign working towards gun violence prevention, racial justice, menstrual justice, and STEM education. She currently holds the title of Miss World Oregon.