Theatre News

Meera Syal, new HOME patron

The comedian, actress and writer is the latest patron of HOME – the new centre for contemporary visual art, theatre and film. .

Meera Syal
Meera Syal
© Whatsonstage

Comedian, actress and writer Meera Syal MBE is today, announced as a Patron of HOME, the new centre for contemporary visual art, theatre and film which opens in Manchester in spring 2015.

Syal, who studied English and Drama at Manchester University, joins fellow patrons, Danny Boyle, Phil Collins, Nicholas Hytner, Asif Kapadia, Jackie Kay, Rosa Barba and Suranne Jones, in supporting Manchester’s dynamic new cultural hub.

Syal has worked extensively across theatre, film, TV and radio throughout her career and is an award-winning author, playwright and screenwriter. She both wrote the screenplay and acted in the BBC Film adaptation of her first novel Anita and Me, which now features on both GCSE and university syllabuses.

Her stage credits include the RSC’s Much Ado About Nothing set in modern-day India and the Bollywood-themed musical Bombay Dreams. In 2011, she was appointed the Cameron Mackintosh Visiting Professor of Contemporary Theatre at the University of Oxford.

Syal is perhaps best known for her roles in BBC comedy series Goodness Gracious Me (which she also co-created) and the International Emmy Award-winning The Kumars at Number 42.

Meera Syal says: ‘I loved my time at Manchester as an undergraduate and am over the moon to be becoming a Patron for HOME, which will add to the city’s reputation for exciting contemporary artistic expression.'