Meera Syal

© Dan Wooller

Meera Syal CBE is a multi-Emmy Award-winning British actress, comedian and writer. She was presented with the BAFTA Fellowship at the BAFTA Television Awards 2023, which is the highest accolade bestowed by BAFTA and recognises an outstanding contribution to the industry and the much-coveted Lifetime Achievement Award at the Women in Film & Television Awards 2023.

Born in Wolverhampton, Syal began her multifaceted career in theatre with roles spanning renowned productions, including the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Much Ado About Nothing, David Hares Behind The Beautiful Forevers, (NT) Kenneth Branagh’s production of Romeo and Juliet, (Garrick Theatre) and Jeremy Herrin’s West End transfer of Noises Off. She also starred as Shirley in Shirley Valentine (Menier Chocolate Factory and Trafalgar Studios West End), receiving the What’s On Stage Award for Best Actress.

Her television credits as a writer/performer include the multi award-winning comedy series Goodness Gracious Me and The Kumars at Number 42, for which she received a BAFTA nomination. Her additional television credits include The Split, Broadchurch, Back To Life and Sky’s Code 404. She has just been seen starring in new Apple TV show Roar, an anthology series based on a short story collection of the same name by Cecelia Ahern. Meera can currently be seen in new Amazon series, The Devil’s Hour and as a series regular in series 2 of Amazon’s The Wheel of Time. She is also currently starring as the title role in Acorn’s Mrs Sidhu Investigates.

On the big screen, her film credits include Yesterday, The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, Paddington 2, Doctor Strange, Beautiful Thing, Absolutely Anything, and Alice Through the Looking Glass. More recently, she has just been seen in Disney Channel Original movie SPIN and will also soon be seen in indie movie The Almond and the Seahorse.

Syal’s first novel, Anita And Me, won the Betty Trask Award and is the first novel by a British Asian writer to be included on the national school’s curriculum. She has written two other critically acclaimed novels, Life Isn’t All Ha Ha Hee Hee and The House Of Hidden Mothers. Meera holds honorary doctorates at the University of Manchester, the University of Birmingham and SOAS, and was also previously a Visiting Professor for Theatre at St Catherine’s, Oxford University. She is currently in the process of writing her memoir, which is due for publication by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in June 2025.

Her credits as a screenwriter include the popular films Bhaji On The Beach, Anita And Me and My Sister Wife, for which she won two Asian Film Awards (AFA), for her screenplay and performance. Meera has also been a recipient of the Women In Film And Television Award for Creative Innovation.