You have probably already seen Indian-Dutch and all American Desi actress Janina Gavankar in Showtime's popular show "The L Word" where she played the lesbian character Papi.

Well now you will get the chance to see more of this charming actress as she will star in ABC's new series "The Gates" that premieres in June.

"Actress. Musician. Geek. That's the best way to describe me."

Check out our exclusive interview with the actress to find out more about her music projects, her 'geeky' side and her mysterious role in "The Gates."

DH!: Tell us a bit about your background for our readers that are not familiar with you yet.

Janina Gavankar: Actress. Musician. Geek. That's the best way to describe me. I am obviously an actor. I play the piano and percussion. So music is a really big part of my life, will always be a huge part of my life. I think that once you're a musician, you're always a musician. I studied classical piano and percussion, if it was nerdy I did it in high school. Anything the world will let me get away with basically. Even if they don't let me get away with it I'm still doing it!

Photo courtesy Jeff Berlin

DH!: Are you focusing on your acting career right now?

Janina Gavankar: Yeah! There's a music project I'm quietly kind of doing. But the truth is that because I have done so many music projects and genres of music projects, I'm refusing to choose at this point. I can't say that it's one thing or the other, I'm just making music.

DH!: How did you get into TV? Is it something you've always wanted to do or did it just happen?

Janina Gavankar: I didn't know I wanted to be an actor until I got to high school and by that point I had been training so hard to be a musician that it was kind of a smack in the face, it was such a huge life change, because you know how we Desis are, we study really hard and we really commit ourselves to whatever our focus is and what we want to be when we 'grow up.' One time I was at a dinner with someone and this girl came up to him and asked for an autograph to 'Nisha good luck in Med school.' So he was like 'hey where are you going to go next year?' And she said she was only a freshman! The point is that we dedicate ourselves from point one. In high school I had a wakeup call: I want to be an actor. So I went to theater school. Once I realized I could have these 'out of body experiences' and become different people, I was like 'I need to do this.'

"The second that you meet me, you'll see I'm actually kind of nerdy, kind of girly."

DH!: You're known for your role as Papi on Showtime's "The L  Word," about a group of lesbian friends, tell us a bit about your role in that series, and are you worried to be typecast after playing a lesbian Latina woman?

Janina Gavankar: Well I'm not Latina, so I don't care! How do I answer this? My breakout role was someone who is the exact opposite of me so just by having that bit of luck happen in my career I feel like there is no way you can typecast me because the second that you meet me, you'll see I'm actually kind of nerdy, kind of girly. I guess I'm kind of like gregarious, I'll admit that. But I'm not too worried about that. And Hollywood has allowed me to play such a wide variety of human beings that so far I am not that worried.

DH!: So now you are moving on to ABC's new show "The Gates" which will air on Sundays at 9PM. Tell us about that.

Janina Gavankar: It's a great show! We're shooting in Shreveport, Louisiana so we get to disappear from everybody's lives and we don't have these kinds of pressures, we don't have to take meetings, we get to bond, it's a big old love fest right now. I am in love with this cast. We hang out. If you read my tweets you'll see that it's just shenanigans all day long! We're very professional but we're having a lot of fun.

DH!: Tell us all about your part in "The Gates."

Janina Gavankar: It's a show about a gated community where everybody seems fairly normal expect that some of them are vampires, werewolves and witches. There are many metaphors that we are playing with but the one that I am most interested in for my own selfish reasons is the immigrant experience; leaving the old county, leaving the old customs, try to assimilate, try to make a better life for yourself and your children. I am a cop with a dark secret. I can only tell you that I have a dark secret, we're going to be very tight-lipped about it because it's just too good! We're all so into it, we get our scripts and were like 'when is the fifth one going to be written?' We can't wait to find out what's happening next.

And we can't wait to see more of this bubbly actress! Are you excited about Janina Gavankar's new series "The Gates?" Share your thoughts!