Everything You Wanted to Know But Were Too Lazy to Google About American Horror Story Star Jyoti Amge

Jessica and our newest cast member Jyoti Amge…the world’s smallest woman. pic.twitter.com/SIPhd4V0pQ

— Ryan Murphy (@MrRPMurphy) August 13, 2014

News broke earlier this week that Jyoti Amge — dubbed The World’s Smallest Woman — had become the latest name to join a cast that includes Jessica Lange, Angela Bassett, Sarah Paulson, Gabourey Sidibe, and many others for the next outing of American Horror Story. This one is subtitled “Freakshow.”

Yes, we’re aware of the problematic implications of someone like Amge joining a drama which is predicated on the other-ness of alleged freaks and weirdos, but at 20 years old, Amge knows what she’s getting into. We’re honestly excited that she’s finding her own way to get into the AHS madness.

Amge’s no newbie to showbiz. Without further ado, here’s all the stuff you should know about the Nagpur, India-born TV star.

She’s A Boss

Amge appeared in the sixth season of Bigg Boss — an Indian spin-off of the Big Brother series. Below, she’s pictured with Indian soap actress Aashka Goradia.

Politically Motivated

In 2012, Amge became visible for her work in campaigning for the controversial far right-wing Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) political party. At the time, she feared that being diminutive overshadowed her political causes, saying, “One of the problems with being famous is people mob you wherever you go. Many of them ask very irritating questions. If I were not the shortest woman in the world, I would not have become famous.”

She Has Charisma In Spades

In this interview, we learn a lot about her outlook of the world — and how much peace she’s made with the fact that wherever she goes, there will be gawkers.

She’s An Open Book

Literally. Head over to her official website and her height, the condition that has led to her being The World’s Smallest Living Woman, and other details are all on display.

Many of us may feel compelled to rake AHS showrunner Ryan Murphy over the coals for his other-ing of Amge (he’s got a not-good rapsheet when it comes to sloppy writing as we learned with the race politics of AHS: Coven), but let’s celebrate Amge’s entrepreneurship and agency. She knows she can ride this opportunity to bigger and better things.

Rohin Guha is an editor at The Aerogram. Talk to him on Twitter if you’d like!