Meera Syal is a British comedian, author, playwright, journalist and actress. She is known for her work in British films, television shows and theater productions. In 2023, she won a BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) scholarship at the Royal Festival Hall.
Wiki/Biography
Meera Syal was born Feroza Syal on Tuesday 27 June 1961 (age 62; as of 2023) in Wolverhampton and raised in Essington, Staffordshire, England, a mining town village. Later, her parents moved to Bloxwich, West Midlands, England. She attended Queen Mary High School near Walsall. She studied for a BA in English and Drama at the University of Manchester. She studied for an MA in Drama and Psychotherapy at the University of Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK. She later gained a Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE). She holds honorary degrees from SOAS, University of London and Roehampton University.
appearance
Height (approximately): 5′7″
Hair color: black
Eye color: black
family
She comes from a Punjabi Indian family.
Parents and siblings
Her father Surinder Syal is an accountant and her mother Surinder Kaur is a teacher. She has a younger brother, Rajeev Syal; he worked as an investigative reporter for The Guardian.
Meera Syal with her parents and daughter
husband and children
Meera Syal married journalist Shekhar Bhatia in 1989 and divorced in 2002. The couple has a daughter named Chameli Bhatia (also known as Milli Bhatia). She is an associate director at the Royal Court Theatre. In 2005, Syal married British actor and television presenter Sanjeev Bhaskar. The couple has a son named Shaan Bhaskar.
Meera Syal (second from right) with Shekhar Bhatia (far left), Chameli Bhaskar (second from left) and Sanjeev Bhaskar (far right)
Profession
acting
In 1983, Syal performed in the one-woman show One of Us, in which she performed all fifteen parts. She first performed in the play at the Stephen Joseph Studio. She later performed the play at the National Student Theater Festival and was selected to perform at the Edinburgh International Festival. Following this, Syal was invited to perform the play at the Royal Court and signed a three-year contract. In 1996, she played a high school football coach named Miss Johan in the British film “Beautiful Things”.
Movie “Beautiful Things” poster
She worked as a writer and actor on the BBC team for the BBC sketch comedy show Goodness Gracious Me, which originally aired on BBC Radio 4 from 1996 to 1998 and on BBC Two in 1998. out. 1998-2001.
Meera Syal (left) in a still from the TV show “Better Days”
In 2001, she played grandmother Sushila in the BBC Two drama The Kumars at No. 42. In 2021, she reprized her role as Sushila in the BBC Radio 4 show Grandma Kumar’s Gossip and Goddess. In 2010, she played Shirley Valentine in a one-woman show at the Menil Chocolate Factory and later at Trafalgar Studios. Some of the famous TV shows and movies produced by Meera Syal include A Little Princess (1986), Absolutely Fabulous (1994), The Stranger (2000), Holby City (2009 ), Doctor Strange (2016) ) and Roar (2022).
Meera Syal in TV series “Roar” stills
book
novel
Her debut novel, Anita and Me, was published in 1996. It is a semi-autobiographical novel set in her life at Essington. The novel was adapted into a film of the same name in 2002, for which she wrote the screenplay and played Mina’s aunt Sarah. In 2015, the novel was produced as a stage play at Birmingham Repertory Theater and subsequently at Theater Royal Stratford East. The novel is also used as a teaching material for English literature examinations in various educational institutions in the UK.
Cover of Meera Syal’s novel Anita and Me
In 1999, she wrote her second novel “Life Is Not All Hahahahahaha”. The novel was also published in German in 2003 as Sari, Jeans und Chilischoten. In 2005, the novel was adapted into a BBC television miniseries of the same name. In 2015, she wrote her third novel, titled “Hidden Mother’s House.”
Scripts and Scripts
In 1983, Meera Syal co-wrote the one-woman show One of Us with Jackie Shapiro. In 1993, she wrote the screenplay for the British comedy film Bhaji on the Beach, directed by Gurinder Chadha. Some of Syal’s other stage plays include The Great Show of Oppressed Minorities (1992), My Kindness (1999) and Bombay Dreams (2002).
Awards, Honors, Achievements
- She won the Betty Trask Award for her debut novel, Anita and Me.
- Syal was awarded an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) in the 1997 New Year Honors.
- In 2000, Syal was awarded the Media Personality of the Year Award at the Commission for Racial Equality’s annual Race in Media Awards.
- In 2003, she received the Nazia Hassan Foundation Award.
- In 2003, she was listed by The Observer as one of the 50 funniest actors in British comedy.
- In May 2015, she was awarded a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) at the New Year’s Awards ceremony for her services to drama and literature.
Meera Syal awarded CBE by Prince Charles
- In 2017, she was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
- On May 14, 2023, she was awarded a BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) scholarship at the Royal Festival Hall.
Facts/Trivia
- Before she was born, her parents moved to England from India.
- At the time, her family was the only Asian family living in the mining village of Essington in England’s West Midlands.
- During her graduation, Meera Syal joined the Stephen Joseph Studio where she began acting and creating stage plays.
- In 1988, Syal sang the song “Then He Kissed Me” with Rita Wolf and Pakistani pop singer Nazia Hassan.
- Her TV series The Kumars at No.42 is reportedly one of Queen Elizabeth II’s favorite TV shows.
- In addition to being an actress and writer, she is also a journalist. She writes occasionally for the British newspaper The Guardian.
- In addition to being an actress, she also worked as a voice artist for two animated series. She voiced the owl in the British animated children’s television series “Tinga Tinga Tales” (2010) and the voice of Baljit’s mother in the American animated musical comedy television series “Phineas and Ferb”.
- In 2011-12 she was appointed Visiting Professor of Contemporary Drama at St Catherine’s College, Oxford University.
- Meera Syal came from a family with rebellious roots and supported the Indian independence movement. Her grandfather, Tek Chand Syal, was a communist journalist who was trapped by the Pakistanis. Her maternal grandfather Phuman Singh joined the Jaito Morcha in 1924 and was awarded a freedom fighter pension in 1972 for his participation.
- In April 2022, Meera Syal appeared on the cover of The Scotsman Magazine.
Meera Syal on the cover of The Scotsman magazine
Categories: Biography
Source: HIS Education