Preeya Kalidas
Kalidas atThe Asian Awards in 2014
Born	(1980-06-21)21 June 1980 (age 44) Isleworth,London, England
Occupations	Actress singer
Years active	1996–present

Preeya Kalidas (born 21 June 1980)^[1] is an English singer and actress. She playedAmira Masood in the soap operaEastEnders, from 2009 to 2012. She released the single "Shimmy" in July 2010, taken from her proposed debut album(I'm Over It) Constant Craving; however, the album was never released.

Preeya Kalidas was born toIndian Gujarati parents inIsleworth,London^[1] and was raised inTwickenham, South-West London.^[2] Her father is anindependent financial adviser, and her mother works forBritish Airways.^[3] She started ballet classes at the age of three, andtap at five. She then trained at theSylvia Young Theatre School in London.^[4] She also trained at Songtime Theatre Arts.^[5]

Kalidas first appeared on screen in the dramaGoogleyes. She went on to play Usha in a short film calledJump Boy in 1998, directed by Menhaj Huda and written by Harsha Patel. After a number of parts in films and on television, includingEast is East,Bollywood Queen,My Family andCasualty, in 2002 she appeared as Monica inGurinder Chadha's filmBend It Like Beckham. She then played the female lead Priya in theAndrew Lloyd Webber-produced showBombay Dreams, written byA.R. Rahman,Meera Syal andDon Black.^[6] She also appeared in theBBC Television seriesBodies as Dr. Maya Dutta.

In 2007, Kalidas landed the female lead in a West End revival of Lloyd Webber andTim Rice'sJoseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Appearing as the narrator, she performed withLee Mead, who won the title role of Joseph inBBC One'sAny Dream Will Do talent search series.^[7][8] The same year, she appeared in the multi-award-winning Channel 4 miniseriesBritz. In 2009, Kalidas appeared in the second series ofBBC One'sMistresses, and joinedEastEnders in April of that year asAmira Shah, the girlfriend, and later wife ofSyed Masood.^[9] In January 2010, she decided to quitEastEnders to pursue a pop career. Her final episode was broadcast on 26 April 2010. In July 2011, Kalidas revealed that she would be returning toEastEnders in the latter part of 2011.^[10] Kalidas, then left the show in March 2012. In September 2012, it was announced that Kalidas was returning to EastEnders briefly to conclude with the departures ofMarc Elliott andJohn Partridge who playSyed Masood andChristian Clarke respectively.

Kalidas appeared inHotel Babylon as Aisha Chaudhri, the daughter of a rich Indian hotel owner. She also appeared in the music video "Love Is Blind" by Ramzi featuring Ash King. In December 2009, she played the part of Leanne in ITV comedy dramaMister Eleven. She starred in the 2010Chris Morris feature filmFour Lions playing Sofia, the wife of protagonist Omar (played byRiz Ahmed). The film was released on 7 May.

After leavingEastEnders, Kalidas began to pursue a career in music, signing a record deal withUniversal Records. Her second single, "Shimmy", featuringMumzy Stranger, was released on 26 July 2010. Kalidas appeared on several programmes including theNational Lottery Results andLoose Women in promotion of the single.^[11] The single received mixed reviews.^[12] Ruth Harrison fromFemaleFirst stated that she "liked the single" but was not keen on the genre of music.^[13]

Kalidas stated in an interview with Digital Spy that her album would consist of a variety of genres.^[14] She also confirmed that the album would include collaborations withBashy,Skepta,Schorcer, Ramzi andMumzy Stranger.^[15] Kalidas' collaboration with Skepta, "Cross My Heart", was released in October 2010 as the lead single from Skepta's second studio album,Doin' It Again, however, at the time of release, Kalidas firmly stated its inclusion on her debut album.^[16]

In 2011, it was announced that due to poor sales of "Shimmy", Kalidas would no longer be releasing an album with Universal Records. In the same month Kalidas was awarded the Best Female Act award at theUK Asian Music Awards, where she performed a new song, "I Like You", alongside "Shimmy" and her collaboration with Skepta, "Cross My Heart".^[17] In July 2011, Kalidas signed a new record deal with All Around The World. In September 2011, Kalidas' second single, "It's A Problem", premiered on YouTube. The single features vocals from rapper Scorcher, who had previously been rumoured to appear on the album.^[18] The music video for "It's A Problem" premiered on 3 October 2011. The digital package of the single was released on 10 October, containing "I Like You", as well as a further new song, "Dirty Kissin'". Kalidas announced the album's third single, "A Woman Scorn" during an interview onLorraine in November 2011. However it was never released. In June 2012, Kalidas eventually released her third single titled; "Love Between Us" which featured British producer, DaVinChe, on backing vocals.

In March 2014, Kalidas released the single "Don't Give Up" was working towards release of her debut studio album in 2015. In April 2014 she released a new single called "Can't Live Without You". Both singles will appear on the album. She has also covered a variety of tracks includingBeyoncé's track "Blue".

In June 2015, Kalidas began playing the role of Pinky, in the newWest End musicalBend It Like Beckham. She previously played the role of Monica in the film version. In 2019, it was announced that she would play the role of Miss Hedge in the hit musicalEverybody's Talking About Jamie from 19 November.^[19][20]

In 2018, Kalidas co-hosted theBrit Asia TV Music Awards withApache Indian.^[21]

Wikimedia Commons has media related toPreeya Kalidas.

• Preeya Kalidas atIMDb

• Living people
• 1980 births
• Alumni of the Sylvia Young Theatre School
• BBC Asian Network presenters
• 21st-century British actresses
• English musical theatre actresses
• English people of Gujarati descent
• English people of Indian descent
• English soap opera actresses
• English women singers
• Mercury Records artists
• Actors from the London Borough of Hounslow
• Actors from the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames
• Actresses from London
• People from Isleworth
• People from Twickenham

• Webarchive template wayback links
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from August 2014
• Articles with hCards
• Commons category link from Wikidata