Meera Syal, a British-born Indian, is an actress with a number of television, theatre and film credits including award-winning Goodness Gracious Me, the film Bhaji on the Beach and the musical Bombay Dreams. Meera co-created the story for a new three-part drama Mrs Roy with Smita Bhide for BBC1. She has written Heal Me for Touchpaper/BBC and Generation Next for the National Theatre’s Connections 2012 season. She contributed and performed new material for a Goodness Gracious Me reunion special for BBC2′s 50th anniversary. Meera co-created, wrote and acted in five series of the crossover hit for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Two. She wrote the screenplays for the films Bhaji on the Beach and the multi-award-winning My Sister Wife in which she also starred. Her most recent work includes writing for and appearing in two BBC hit comedy series, The Real McCoy and Goodness Gracious Me, the lead in the BAFTA award-winning short film It's Not Unusual and Behind The Beautiful Forevers at the National Theatre. She is also the author of three novels: Anita and Me, which won a Betty Trask Award and was shortlisted for the Guardian Fiction Prize, Life Isn't All Ha Ha Hee Hee and her third novel, The House of Hidden Mothers was published by Transworld Publishers on 4th June 2015. Drama Republic have optioned the TV rights.
