Born and raised in Sikkim, Thapa did her schooling in Sikkim and thereafter moved to Kolkata to pursue her graduation. She was a professional model, and won the Mega Miss North East 2007 beauty pageant held at Guwahati, Assam. before entering the film industry.
A professional model before joining the film industry, in 2010 she made her feature film debut with Tina Ki Chaabi. Her next film, I.D., directed by Kamal KM won her best Actress awards at Los Angeles Film Festival and the Madrid Film Festival. The film premiered at Busan International Film Festival and was selected for several other reputed international festivals. She starred next in Monsoon Shootout, a Hindi noir thriller by Amit Kumar, which was screened at Cannes Film Festival 2013 as part of the Midnight Screenings section, to rave reviews from several international critics. She also appeared in Anurag Kashyap’s short film That Day After Everyday which gathered over 6 million views on YouTube within weeks of release. Her next feature, Geetu Mohandas' Liar's Dice, premiered at the Mumbai Film festival in October 2013 and was screened at Sundance Film Festival and International Film Festival Rotterdam in January 2014. Geetanjali, who played the female lead won the best Actress award at the 61st National Film Awards. The film was also India’s official entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 87th Academy Awards, winning several other awards at prestigious international film festivals that year.
Thapa latest release was Academy award winning Director Danis Tanovic's Indian film, Tigers, along with Emraan Hashmi, where she plays a Pakistani woman. It was selected to screen in the Contemporary World Cinema Section at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival. Apart from films, she has also appeared in several iconic commercials, her most recent ones including prestigious jewelry brand Tanishq and L'Oreal with Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.
Thapa’s debut short film was the English language project Myth (2006) directed by Prashant Rasaily, when she was still in school.
