“Ours is like Jewish humour with a sun tan - warm, family-based. We share a lot of neuroses such as food, guilt, overachieving children and controlling mothers.”
Hometown:
Wolverhampton, England
Assets:
Sultry and charismatic.
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Job:
Actress, Comedienne, Writer, Director
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Hobbies:
netball and jazz singing.
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Chicks She's Worked With
Nina Wadia, Liza Tarbuck, Michelle Ryan, Barbara Windsor, Nigella Lawson, Julia Sawalha, Lindsey Coulson, Claire Rushbrook, Eva Pope, Rosie Rowell, Annabelle Apsion, Denise Welch, Cathy Tyson, Michelle Holmes, Pooky Quesnel, Amanda Mealing, Tina Hobley, Rebecca Grant, Josie Lawrence, Arabella Weir, Caroline Aherne, Trisha Goddard, Judy Finnigan, Sarah Lancashire, Jaye Jacobs, Seeta Indrani, Frances Barber, Amita Dhiri, Alexandra Fletcher, Ann Bryson, Sara Crowe, Kathy Burke, Ayesha Dharker, Samantha Spiro, Sally-Rogers
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Meera Syal MBE (born Feroza Syal; 27 June 1961) is a British comedian, writer, playwright, singer, journalist, producer and actress, rising to prominence as one of the team that created Goodness Gracious Me and becoming one of the UK's best-known Indian personalities.
She was awarded the MBE in the New Year's Honours List of 1997 and in 2003 was listed in The Observer as one of the fifty funniest acts in British comedy.
It was announced on 24 March 2009 that Syal will join the cast of medical drama Holby City in the summer of 2009, playing Dr Tara Sodi.
Her Punjabi-born parents came to England from New Delhi. She was born in Wolverhampton, England and grew up in Essington, a mining village a few miles to the north. She attended Queen Mary's High School in nearby Walsall where she was a regular in the hoss and jockey and is perhaps the school's most famous alumna.
Syal won the National Student Drama Award for writing One of Us while studying English and Drama at Manchester University. She won the Betty Trask Award for her first book Anita and Me and the Media Personality of the Year award at the Commission for Racial Equality's annual Race in the Media awards in 2000. Syal wrote the screenplay for the 1993 film Bhaji on the Beach. She was one of the team who wrote and performed in the BBC comedy sketch show Goodness Gracious Me (1996-2001), originally on radio and then transferred it to television.
As a journalist she writes occasionally for The Guardian.
She achieved a number one record with Gareth Gates and her co-stars from The Kumars at No. 42 with Spirit in the Sky, the Comic Relief single. She also sang Then He Kissed Me (composed by Biddu) with the famous pop star from Pakistan Nazia Hassan. Nazia, Syal and Bidddu also came up with the girl band named "Saffron" in 1988[citation needed]. She was given the Nazia Hassan Foundation award in 2003.
In June 2003 she appeared as a guest on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs programme with a selection of music by Nitin Sawhney, Madan Bala Sindhu, Joni Mitchell, Pizzicato Five, Sukhwinder Singh, Louis Armstrong and others. The luxury she chose to ease her life as a castaway was a piano. In October 2008 she starred in the BBC2 sitcom Beautiful People.
In 2004 she took part in one episode of the BBC series Who Do You Think You Are?, which investigated her family history. Syal was apparently surprised to discover both her grandfathers had actively campaigned against British rule and presence in India: one was a communist journalist, and the other was a punjab protestor, who was imprisoned and tortured in the Golden Temple after protesting.
In January 2005, Syal married her frequent collaborator, Sanjeev Bhaskar, who plays her grandson in The Kumars At No. 42; the marriage took place in Lichfield, Staffordshire. Their baby, a boy named Shaan, was born at the Portland Hospital on 2 December 2005. Syal has a daughter called Chameli from her former marriage to journalist Shekhar Bhatia. Her brother is investigative journalist Rajeev Syal. In February 2009 British entertainers David Baddiel, Bill Bailey, Morwenna Banks, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Jo Brand, Russell Brand, Rob Brydon, Jimmy Carr, Jack Dee, Omid Djalili, Sean Lock, Lee Mack, Alexei Sayle, Meera Syal, Mark Thomas said in an open letter printed in the The Times of London of the Bahá'í leaders to be on trial in Iran: "In reality, their only “crime”, which the current regime finds intolerable, is that they hold a religious belief that is different from the majority….
we register our solidarity with all those in Iran who are being persecuted for promoting the best development of society …(and) with the governments, human rights organisations and people of goodwill throughout the world who have so far raised their voices calling for a fair trial, if not the complete release of the Baha’i leaders in Iran." Echoing the comments earlier in the month made by two hundred and sixty seven non-Bahá'í Iranian academics, writers, artists, journalists and activists from some 21 countries including Iran who signed an open letter of apology posted to Iranian.com and stating they were "ashamed" and pledging their support in Bahá'ís achieving the rights detailed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for the Bahá'ís in Iran.
Stuff she’s done, ie: movies, tv, albums:
Goodness Gracious Me, Room 101, The Book Quiz, Keeping Mum, Ruby, Drop the Dead Donkey, Band of Gold, Degrees of Error, The Brain Drain, Absolutely Fabulous, Sean's Show, The Real McCoy, Have I got News For You, Girls' Night, Beautiful Thing, Crossing The Floor, Flight, Gummed Labels, No Crying He Makes, Sammie and Rosie Get Laid, A Little Princess, Life Isn't All Ha Ha Hee Hee, Beautiful People, The Vagina Monologues, The Amazing Mrs Pritchard, Who Do You Think You Are?, 8 Out of 10 Cats, Minder (TV series) (2009), The ONE Show, Bad Girls, Bombay Dreams, Jekyll, Murder Investigation Team, Linda Green, The Kumars at No 42, All About Me, Anita and Me, The Bill, Soldier Soldier, Holby City, Bhaji on the Beach, Holding On
Dudes she has worked with:
James Nesbitt, Paterson Joseph, Roland Gift, Shashi Kapoor, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Robert Lindsay, David Tennant, Jeremy Irons, Richard Hope, Michael McKell, Richard Huw, Andrew Somerville, Joe Shaw, Sean Gallagher, Vincent Ebrahim, Jack Ellis, Kabir Bedi, Max Beesley, Robert Duncan, Neil Pearson, Stephen Tompkinson, David Swift, Jeff Rawle, Angus Kennedy, Dougray Scott, Robson Green, David Morrissey, Phil Daniels, Glen Berry
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