fiction.wikisort.org - Actor

Nina Wadia OBE (born 18 December 1968[1][2][3]) is a British actress and comedian. She is known for portraying Zainab Masood in the BBC soap opera EastEnders, Mrs Hussein in the BBC comedy Still Open All Hours, and for starring in the BBC Two sketch show Goodness Gracious Me. Additionally, Wadia appeared in the Hindi-language romantic comedy Namaste London in 2007. She also appeared in the series Origin in 2018.

Nina Wadia OBE
Wadia in 2012
Born	(1968-12-18) 18 December 1968 (age 53) Bombay, India
Occupation	Actress comedian
Years active	1991–present
Spouse	Raiomond Mirza ​ (m. 1998)​
Children	2

Early life

Wadia was born on 18 December 1968 in Bombay, India[2] and is of Parsi ancestry. She has an older brother and older sister; both of her parents have died. When Wadia was nine years old she moved to Hong Kong and was a student at Island School, Hong Kong.[4]

Career

Television and film

Wadia first came to prominence in BBC sketch show Goodness Gracious Me,[5] playing characters such as Mrs "I can make it at home for nothing!" and one half of The Competitive Mothers. She took over from her Goodness Gracious Me co-star, Meera Syal, in the role of Rupinder in the sitcom All About Me alongside Jasper Carrott and Natalia Kills. In 2007, Wadia was cast as Zainab Masood in the long-running BBC soap opera EastEnders.[6] Her last appearance as Zainab in EastEnders was on 8 February 2013.[7] She also had a minor role in EastEnders in 1994, playing a nurse named Viv who treated Michelle Fowler (Susan Tully) when she was hospitalised with a gunshot wound. She also appears as Zainab in the 2010 spin-off EastEnders: E20.

Wadia has also made several guest appearances in various British comedies and dramas, such as 2point4 Children, The Vicar of Dibley, Thin Ice Chambers, Holby City, Murder in Mind, Doctors and New Tricks. She was a regular presenter on the ITV topical chat show, Loose Women (2005–2006). Wadia also appeared in the E4 teen drama Skins, playing the mother of Anwar Kharral, and, in March 2008, she appeared in the BBC Three drama West 10 LDN. Wadia played the wedding caterer in the comedy film Bend It Like Beckham.[8]

She played a role as the housekeeper in the film I Can't Think Straight, directed by Shamim Sarif. The film revolves about two women from Indian and Palestinian upper-class immigrant communities in the UK who fall in love, and Wadia is the housekeeper who rebels at her high handed Palestinian employer in small ways. She also had a minor part in the film Code 46 (2003). She starred in a BFI/BBC film Sixth Happiness along with Firdaus Kanga in 1997. The film explores sexuality, disability and the Parsees, a small westernised minority in India, of which Wadia herself is a member. She has also starred alongside Rishi Kapoor playing his wife in a Bollywood film titled Namaste London.[9] She voices the title role in Ethelbert the Tiger – a children's programme. She also had a role in Doctor Who as a doctor in the episode "The Eleventh Hour".[10]

In July 2013, Wadia appeared in All Star Mr & Mrs.[11] In September 2013, she appeared in ITV's Big Star's Little Star. Since December 2013, Wadia has starred in Still Open All Hours as Mrs Hussein.[12] In January 2015, it was announced that Wadia would have a guest role in Holby City, as an established neurosurgeon Annabelle Cooper. The role will be for five episodes.[13] In April 2017, she appeared as Khadija in Finding Fatimah, a British romantic comedy.[14] In 2019, as a last minute casting call, and in "More of a Cameo" as Wadia said, she played the minor part of "Zulla" in the live action remake of Aladdin directed by Guy Ritchie. In 2020, she appeared in the role of Anna Masani in the ninth season of the popular BBC drama series Death in Paradise. Also in 2020, she had a small part in the fifteen minute drama Isolation Stories alongside Sheridan Smith which was filmed via webcam due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom.

From September 2021, Wadia was a contestant for the nineteenth series of Strictly Come Dancing, paired with professional dancer Neil Jones.[15] The couple were the first to be eliminated, in the second week.[16]

Stage and radio

Apart from the original radio version of Goodness Gracious Me, Wadia's other radio work includes guesting on Parsons and Naylor's Pull-Out Sections, as well as regular appearances in the BBC World Service soap opera Westway as the pharmacist Namita ul-Haq. In 2001, Wadia voiced the role of Ariel in a BBC Radio 3 production of The Tempest. In 2002, she was due to star in the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Midnight's Children, based on Salman Rushdie's novel, but she quit only weeks before rehearsals were due to begin. There were rumours that her departure was prompted by offers of more lucrative and less demanding television work, although her agent denied this.[17]

Personal life

Wadia is married to the composer Raiomond Mirza. The couple first met in Canada and married there in July 1998. They live in Surrey, England. Like Wadia, Mirza is a Parsi and the couple had a traditional Parsi wedding.[18]^{[citation needed]}

Charity

Wadia was involved in the Pakistan Earthquake Appeal Concert and Fashion Show, at the Royal Albert Hall in 2005. She has also been involved in campaigning for Save the Children[19] and for increased organ donation from Asians in Britain.[20] As a JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation) Ambassador Nina Wadia has received an OBE in the 2021 New Year Honours for her services to charity and entertainment.

Honours and awards

Wadia won 'Best Comedy Performance' at the 2009 British Soap Awards. Additionally she won Best Onscreen Partnership at the same awards ceremony for her onscreen relationship with Nitin Ganatra. In 2004, she won the chairman's Award at the Asian Women awards.[21]

In April 2013, she was awarded with the Outstanding Achievement in Television Award at The Asian Awards.[22]

Wadia was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2021 New Year Honours for services to entertainment and charity.[23]

Filmography

Television

Year(s)	Title	Role(s)
1991	2point4 Children	Sharma
1994	EastEnders	Nurse Viv
1998–2001, 2014–2015	Goodness Gracious Me	Various characters
1999	The Vicar of Dibley	Miss Carr
2000	Holby City	Rita Dennish
2000–2001	Perfect World	Maggie
2001	Chambers	Alex Kahn
2002	Ethelbert the Tiger	Ethelbert
2003–2004	All About Me	Rupinder
2003	Murder in Mind	Meena Patel
2004	Doctors	DS Coombs
2005	Waking The Dead	Roshni Mehta
2005	New Tricks	Mughda Das
2005–2006, 2015, 2016	Loose Women	Regular Panellist; Guest Panellist
2006	Thin Ice	Karen
2006, 2017	The Wright Stuff	Panellist; Guest Host
2007–2008	Skins	Mother of Anwar Kharral
2007–2013	EastEnders	Zainab Masood
2008	West 10 LDN	Job Centre Clerk
2010	Doctor Who	Dr Ramsden
2010	EastEnders: E20	Zainab Masood
2013–2018	Still Open All Hours	Mrs. Hussein
2014	Citizen Khan	Aunty Noor
2015	Holby City	Annabelle Cooper
2017	Zapped	Judge
2017	Hetty Feather	Mrs Penhaligon
2017	Murder on the Blackpool Express	Moira
2018	Trollied	Meg
2018	The Apprentice: You're Fired!	Panellist
2018	Origin	Venisha Gupta
2019	Danny & Mick	Joy
2020	Death in Paradise	Anna Masani
2020	Isolation Stories	Yasmine
2020	The Crystal Maze	Contestant
2021	Can I Improve My Memory?	Contestant[24]
2021	Strictly Come Dancing	Contestant
2021–present	The Outlaws	Shanthi
2022	The Sandman	Fate Mother

Film

Year	Title	Role
1997	Sixth Happiness	BFI/BBC film
2002	Bend It Like Beckham	Wedding caterer
2003	Code 46	Minor role
2007	Namaste London	Bebo Malhotra
2008	I Can't Think Straight	Rani
2012	Keith Lemon: The Film	Pat
2016	A Street Cat Named Bob	Bus Conductress[citation needed]
2017	Finding Fatimah	Khadija
2018	Strangeways Here We Come	Lucy
2019	Aladdin	Zulla
2019	Corner Shop Show: Thank You, Come Again	Faizal's mother

References

External links

Media related to Nina Wadia at Wikimedia Commons

• Nina Wadia at IMDb

На других языках

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[de] Nina Wadia

Nina Wadia (* 18. Dezember 1968 in Bombay, Indien) ist eine britische Filmschauspielerin.

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- [en] Nina Wadia

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[ru] Вэйдья, Нина

Ни́на Вэ́йдья (англ. Nina Wadia; 18 декабря 1968, Мумбаи, Индия) — английская актриса, сценарист и кинопродюсер.

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