Meera Syal | |
|---|---|
 Syal at the 7thAsian Awards in 2017 | |
| Born | Feroza Syal (1961-06-27)27 June 1961 (age 64) Wolverhampton, England |
| Education | Queen Mary's High School |
| Alma mater | University of Manchester (BA) |
| Occupations | Comedian, writer, playwright, singer, journalist, actress |
| Years active | 1983–present |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 2; includingMilli |
Dame Meera Syal (bornFeroza Syal; 27 June 1961) is an English comedian, writer, playwright, singer, journalist and actress. She rose to prominence as one of the team that createdGoodness Gracious Me and by portraying Sanjeev's grandmother, Ummi, inThe Kumars at No. 42. She has become one of theUK's best-known Asian personalities.
In 2003 she was listed inThe Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy.[2][3]
In 2023, she was awarded theBAFTA Fellowship.[4]
Syal was born on 27 June 1961 inWolverhampton and grew up inEssington,Staffordshire, a mining village a few miles to the north. HerIndianPunjabi parents, Surinder Syal (father) and Surinder Kaur (mother), came to the United Kingdom fromNew Delhi.[5] When she was young, the family moved toBloxwich, north ofWalsall.
This landscape, and the family's status as the only Asian family in the smallMidlands mining village of Essington, were later to form the backdrop to her novel (later filmed)Anita and Me, which Syal described in a 2003BBC interview as semi-autobiographical.[6] She attendedQueen Mary's High School in nearbyWalsall and then studied English and Drama atManchester University, graduating with aDouble First.[7][8]
In 2023, Syal was awarded the BAFTA Fellowship, its highest accolade, for her career on screen. During her studies in Manchester, she joined theStephen Joseph Studio, acting and later writing stage plays. On graduation, she had secured a place to study for an MA in drama andpsychotherapy at theUniversity of Leeds, and then to study for aPGCE to teach. However, she had also co-written the one-woman playOne of Us with Jackie Shapiro, in which Syal performed all fifteen parts, about a West Midlands-born ethnic Indian girl who ran away from home to become an actress. First performed at the Stephen Joseph Studio, she then performed it at theNational Student Drama Festival where it won a prize to perform at theEdinburgh International Festival, where it also won a prize. As a result, a director from theRoyal Court Theatre contacted Syal, and asked her to perform in a play at the Royal Court on a three-year contract.[9]
Syal wrote the screenplay for the 1993 filmBhaji on the Beach, directed byGurinder Chadha, who would later directBend It Like Beckham. In 1996 she played Miss Chauhan, a high school football coach in the filmBeautiful Thing. She was on the team that wrote and performed in theBBC comedy sketch showGoodness Gracious Me (1996–2001), originally on radio and then on television.[8] She was a scriptwriter onA. R. Rahman andAndrew Lloyd Webber's musicalBombay Dreams[10] and she played the grandmother Sushila in theInternational Emmy-award-winning television seriesThe Kumars at No. 42, which ran for seven series,[11] reviving the character in 2021 forBBC Radio 4'sGossip and Goddesses with Granny Kumar.
In October 2008, she starred in theBBC Two sitcomBeautiful People. This role, as Aunty Hayley, continued in 2009.[12] Syal starred in the eleventh series ofHolby City as consultant Tara Sodi.[13] In 2009, she guest starred inMinder and starred in the filmMad, Sad & Bad.[14][15] In 2010, she playedShirley Valentine in a one-woman show at theMenier Chocolate Factory, later transferring toTrafalgar Studios.[16] In the same year she played Nasreen Chaudhry intwo episodes ofDoctor Who alongsideMatt Smith.[17]
Syal's memoir is due to be published in 2025.[18]
Syal is an occasional singer, having achieved a number one record withGareth Gates and her co-stars fromThe Kumars at No. 42 with "Spirit in the Sky", theComic Relief single.[19] She earlier (1988) provided vocals for abhangra version of "Then He Kissed Me", composed byBiddu and with thePakistani pop starNazia Hassan, as part of the short-livedgirl band Saffron.[8] In June 2003 she appeared as a guest onBBC Radio 4'sDesert Island Discs programme with a selection of music byNitin 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.[20]
Having studied English at university and penned two novels and a variety of scripts and screenplays, Syal was chosen as one of the guests on "The Cultural Exchange" slot ofFront Row on 30 April 2013, when she nominatedTo Kill a Mockingbird byHarper Lee as a piece of art work which she loved.[21]
As a journalist, she writes occasionally forThe Guardian.[22]
Syal won the National Student Drama Award for performing inOne of Us which was written by Jacqueline Shapiro while at university.[23] She won theBetty Trask Award for her first bookAnita and Me and the Media Personality of the Year award at theCommission for Racial Equality's annualRace in the Media awards in 2000.[22] She was given theNazia Hassan Foundation award in 2003.[24]
In 2011–12, Syal was appointed visiting professor of contemporary theatre atSt Catherine's College, Oxford.[8] She has an honorary degree fromSOAS, University of London and from theUniversity of Roehampton.[2][25]
She was appointedMember of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the1997 New Year Honours andCommander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2015 New Year Honours for services to drama and literature.[26][27] She received her CBE insignia from thePrince of Wales on 6 May 2015 atBuckingham Palace.[28][29]
In 2017, Syal was elected aFellow of the Royal Society of Literature.[30][31]
In May 2023, she received theBAFTA Fellowship, regarded as the highest accolade of theBritish Academy Television Awards.[4][3]
She was appointedDame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the2026 New Year Honours for services to literature, drama and charity.[32][33]
Syal married journalist Shekhar Bhatia in 1989; they divorced in 2002. Their daughterMilli Bhatia is associate director of theRoyal Court Theatre.[34] In January 2005, Syal married her frequent collaborator,Sanjeev Bhaskar, who plays her grandson inThe Kumars at No. 42; the marriage ceremony took place inLichfield register office, Staffordshire.[35] They have a son, born in 2005.
In 2004, Syal took part in one episode of theBBC seriesWho Do You Think You Are?, which investigated her family history.[36] Syal discovered that both her grandfathers were supporters of theIndian independence movement: one as acommunistjournalist, the other as aPunjab protester who was briefly imprisoned in theGolden Temple.[36]
Syal's brother is investigative journalist Rajeev Syal, who coversWhitehall, writing stories forThe Guardian.[37]
In February 2009, Syal was one of a number of British entertainers who signed an open letter printed inThe Times protesting against thepersecution of Baháʼís in Iran.[38]
In January 2011, Syal took part in the BBC Radio 4 programme My Teenage Diary, discussing growing up as the only British Asian girl in a small English town, feeling overweight and unattractive.
Her bookAnita and Me has found its way onto school and university English syllabuses both in Britain and abroad. Scholarly literature on it includes:
