Born on 28 April 1987 to a Malayali mother and a Telugu father, Samantha was brought up in Pallavaram in Chennai, Tamil Nadu as the youngest child of the family to Prabhu and Ninette and two elder brothers Jonathan and David, whilst becoming fluent in the Tamil language. Despite her mixed regional background, Samantha has cited that she sees herself as a Tamilian, as she was brought up speaking Tamil and English at home. As a part of her education, Samantha was schooled at Holy Angels Anglo Indian Higher Secondary School and then completed a degree in commerce at Stella Maris College, Chennai. Towards the end of her undergraduate degree she became involved in modelling, notably working with Naidu Hall, through which she was first spotted by filmmaker Ravi Varman.
