Parminder Kaur Nagra (born 5 October 1975) is an
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
actressAn actor or actress is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
. She came to international prominence in 2002 after starring in
Bend It Like BeckhamBend It Like Beckham is a film starring Parminder Nagra and Keira Knightley first released in the United Kingdom. The film was directed by Gurinder Chadha...
. More recently she starred as Dr.
Neela RasgotraDr. Neela Rasgotra is a fictional medical doctor portrayed by Parminder Nagra on the television show ER.-Beginnings:...
in the
Emmy AwardThe Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards , Grammy Awards and Tony Awards .They are presented in various...
-winning American
medical dramaA medical drama is a television drama in which events center upon a hospital, an ambulance staff, or any medical environment. While not as popular as legal/crime drama, it is still easily identifiable occupational based drama....
series
ERER is an American medical drama series created by novelist Michael Crichton that aired on NBC from September 1994 to April 2009. It is set primarily in the emergency room of fictional County General Hospital in Chicago, Illinois. It was produced by Constant c Productions and Amblin Entertainment in...
. She is married to photographer James Stenson and has one child.
Early life
Nagra was born in
LeicesterLeicester is a city and unitary authority area in the East Midlands of England. It is the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest...
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, the daughter of
working classWorking class is a term used in academic sociology and in ordinary conversation to describe, depending on context and speaker, those employed in lower tier jobs as measured by skill, education, and compensation....
PunjabiPunjabi is an adjectival form of Punjab, which is the name of a state in both India and Pakistan, and the corresponding linguistic-cultural group...
SikhSikh is the title and name given to an adherent of Sikhism. The term has its origin in the Sanskrit term , meaning "disciple, learner" or , meaning "instruction"....
parents who emigrated to the UK from the
PunjabPunjab is a state in northwest India. The Indian state borders the Pakistani province of Punjab to the west, Jammu and Kashmir to the north, Himachal Pradesh to the northeast, Haryana to the south and southeast and Rajasthan to the southwest. The total area of the state is 50,362 square kilometres...
state in
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
during the late 1960s. Her father, Sukha, was a factory worker who is believed to have separated from her mother, Nashuter, when either Nagra was a child shortly before her; he died in late December 2008. Nagra has two younger brothers and one younger sister. They were raised in a small terraced house in the
BelgraveBelgrave is an area in northern Leicester, England. The old Belgrave Village is on the Loughborough Road, to the west of the A46, known at that point as 'Melton Road'.-History:...
district of Leicester by her mother and stepfather, who worked as a
bookkeeperBookkeeping is the recording of financial transactions. Transactions include sales, purchases, income, and payments by an individual or organization. Bookkeeping is usually performed by a bookkeeper. Bookkeeping should not be confused with accounting. The accounting process is usually performed by...
at a cousin's transport company.
At the age of seven, Nagra suffered a
burnA burn is a type of injury that may be caused by heat, electricity, chemicals, light, radiation, or friction. Burns can be highly variable in terms of the tissue affected, the severity, and resultant complications. Muscle, bone, blood vessel, dermal and epidermal tissue can all be damaged with...
while preparing a meal on the gas stove when her trousers caught fire. She was taken into the bathroom by an uncle who immersed her in cold water. When the burned fabric was later removed, her skin attached to it and left a resulting
scarScars are areas of fibrous tissue that replace normal skin after injury. A scar results from the biologic process of wound repair in the skin and other tissues of the body. Thus, scarring is a natural part of the healing process. With the exception of very minor lesions, every wound Scars (also...
on her right leg. The story was included into the film
Bend It Like BeckhamBend It Like Beckham is a film starring Parminder Nagra and Keira Knightley first released in the United Kingdom. The film was directed by Gurinder Chadha...
; however, the details were changed such that her character was burned while making beans on toast.
Nagra attended the Northfield House Primary School in Leicester. At her comprehensive school,
Soar Valley CollegeSoar Valley College is a co-educational comprehensive secondary school in Leicester, England. The school was designated a Maths and Computing specialist college in September 2004. As part of the Building Schools for the Future initiative, the current college building is to be torn down and a new...
, she played
violaThe viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.The casual observer may mistake the viola for the violin because of their similarity in size, closeness in pitch range , and nearly identical playing position...
in the youth orchestra and also appeared in her first theatrical productions. A few months after sitting her A-levels and leaving school, Nagra was approached by her former drama instructor, Jez Simons, about becoming part of the Leicester-based theatre company Hathi Productions, for which he served as the artistic director. She accepted and was cast as a chorus member in the 1994 musical
Nimai presented at the Leicester Haymarket. Only a week into rehearsals, she was switched from the chorus to take the place of the lead actress, who had dropped out. Simons recalls that Nagra, while also a good singer and actress, had a quality that raised her above other actresses which led him to select her as the new lead. Nagra sometimes describes herself as having "fallen into" acting due to this unexpected turn of events.
The London years
Nagra left Leicester for
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
, forgoing university to pursue a theatrical career and her childhood ambition of becoming an actress. Nagra's first London theatrical job came in 1994 when she was cast as the Princess in the pantomime
Sleeping BeautySleeping Beauty is a fairy tale classic, the first in the set published in 1697 by Charles Perrault, Contes de ma Mère l'Oye ....
, at the Theatre Royal Stratford East. Although most critics seemed rather unimpressed with the show, Nagra's performance is notable in that she was a woman of colour portraying a traditionally white character. After
Sleeping Beauty, Nagra worked with small Indian theatre companies such as Tara Arts and Tamasha. These roles eventually led to the radio and television appearances that also defined her career throughout most of the 1990s.
In 1996, Nagra took a small part in
Fair Ladies at a Game of Poem Cards, written by
Chikamatsu MonzaemonChikamatsu Monzaemon was a Japanese dramatist of jōruri, the form of puppet theater that later came to be known as bunraku, and the live-actor drama, kabuki....
and performed at Cottesloe, Royal National Theatre. It was there that she met Irish actor Kieran Creggan, with whom she later moved into a flat in Kennington, south London. Their relationship continued for five years.
Although lacking formal theatrical training, Nagra signed with veteran London-based agent Joan Brown, after which she was cast in her first television roles — a bit part on the British medical drama
Casualty, and a small role in the television movie
King Girl, in which Nagra played an abusive member of a girls' gang. In 1997, Nagra appeared in the three-part drama
Turning World, starring
Roshan SethRoshan Seth is a Genie Award winning and BAFTA Award nominated English-Indian actor, who appears mainly in British and American films...
. The following year she appeared on
Casualty for the second time. In 1999 she played the part of a convenience store clerk in the television movie
Donovan Quick, starring
Colin FirthColin Andrew Firth is an English film, television, and stage actor. Firth first gained wide public attention, especially in England, for his portrayal of Mr. Darcy in the highly acclaimed 1995 television adaption of Pride and Prejudice...
. Also of note are appearances on the British comedy show
Goodness Gracious MeGoodness Gracious Me is a BBC English language sketch comedy show originally on BBC Radio 4 and later televised on BBC Two based on four British Asian actors: Sanjeev Bhaskar, Kulvinder Ghir, Meera Syal and Nina Wadia...
. Nagra also starred in radio plays written including, amongst other, plays written by noted author and playwright
Tanika GuptaTanika Gupta, MBE, is a British playwright of Bengali origin. Apart from her work for the theatre, she has also written scripts for television.She is related to the Indian revolutionary Dinesh Gupta, whose brother was Tanika's grandfather....
. In 1998, Nagra was part of
Dancing Girls of Lahore, a radio play co-written by her future
Bend It Like Beckham co-star, Shaheen Khan. In 2001, Nagra provided the voice of a
Muslim:A Muslim , , is an adherent of the religion of Islam. The feminine form is Muslimah . Literally, the word means "one who submits ". Muslim is the participle of the same verb of which Islam is the infinitive. Muslims believe that there is only one God, translated in Arabic as Allah...
girl in
Arena: The Veil, a docu-drama about women who choose to wear the Muslim head scarf. Her stage performances of this period are perhaps the most noteworthy. Not long after
Fair Ladies at a Game of Poem Cards, Nagra was cast in 1997's
Oh Sweet Sita, an adaptation of Indian mythology about
RamaRama or Ramachandra is the seventh avatar of Vishnu in Hinduism, and a legendary king of Ayodhya in ancient India...
and his wife
SitaSITA is a multinational information technology company specialising in providing IT and telecommunication services to the aviation industry. Originally known as the Société Internationale de Télécommunications Aéronautiques, the company no longer uses this long name and is now known simply as...
. Starring in the title role of Sita, Nagra caught the attention of director
Gurinder ChadhaGurinder Chadha, OBE, is a British film director of Indian origin. Most of her films explore the lives of Indians living in the UK...
.
Nagra's other notable stage roles during this period are many and include appearances in
Skeleton (1997), with critical acclaim for her "bright-eyed vivacity" as the village girl;
A Tainted Dawn (1997), playing a
HinduA Hindu is an adherent of Hinduism, a set of religious, philosophical and cultural systems that originated in the Indian subcontinent. The vast body of Hindu scriptures, divided into Śruti and Smriti , lay the foundation of Hindu beliefs which primarily include dhárma, kárma, ahimsa and saṃsāra...
boy accidentally left in
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located at the crossroads of South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia...
and raised by a Muslim couple;
Fourteen Songs, Two Weddings & A Funeral (1998), showing her skills as a romantic comedienne, also to critical acclaim;
Krishna's Lila — A Play of the Asian World (1999), as part of a five-person cast in a controversially titled piece;
The Square Circle (1999), tackling the demanding role of an illiterate peasant girl who becomes a rape victim; and in
River on Fire (2000), as Kiran, in a retelling of
SophoclesSophocles was the second of the three ancient Greek tragedians whose work has survived. His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus and earlier than those of Euripides...
'
AntigoneAntigone is a tragedy by Sophocles written before or in 442 BC. Chronologically, it is the third of the three Theban plays but was written first...
.
Bend It Like Beckham
Bend It Like BeckhamBend It Like Beckham is a film starring Parminder Nagra and Keira Knightley first released in the United Kingdom. The film was directed by Gurinder Chadha...
was Nagra's breakthrough film. It was directed by British
directorA film director, or filmmaker is a person who directs the making or production of a film. Some also consider a film producer to be a filmmaker....
Gurinder Chadha and also starred
Jonathan Rhys-MeyersJonathan Rhys Meyers is an Irish actor and model, best known internationally for his roles in the 1998 film Velvet Goldmine, as Elvis Presley in the biographical miniseries Elvis and as King Henry VIII in historical drama The Tudors.-Early life:Rhys Meyers was born Jonathan Michael Francis...
,
Anupam KherAnupam Kher is an acclaimed actor in Hindi films in India. He is a Kashmiri Pandit. He has acted in many successful Bollywood films, and has worked in several British, American and Chinese films as well. He has also worked in Punjabi films.-Career:Kher made his acting debut in the 1982 Hindi movie...
, Shaheen Khan and
Keira KnightleyKeira Christina Knightley is an English film actress. She began her career as a child and came to international prominence in 2003 after co-starring in the films Bend It Like Beckham and the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy....
, for whom this film was also a career breakthrough. In the film, Nagra plays Jesminder (Jess) Bhamra, a teenage Sikh football player who idolizes football superstar
David BeckhamDavid Robert Joseph Beckham,
OBE is an English footballer who currently plays in midfield for American Major League Soccer club Los Angeles Galaxy and the England national team....
and defies her traditional parents to pursue her dreams of playing football.
The small-budget picture was a critical and financial success in the United Kingdom, eventually making the leap around the world and to
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and the U.S. where it earned over $30 million at the box office. The script, conceived by Chadha with her husband Paul Mayeda Berges and Guljit Bindra, was written with Nagra in mind. While initially indifferent to the game of
footballFootball is the name of several similar team sports, all of which involve kicking a ball with the foot in an attempt to score a goal. The most popular of these sports worldwide is association football, more commonly known as just "football" or "soccer"...
, Nagra found the football-centred story to be both funny and touching. She agreed to audition and eventually accepted the role. An intensive ten-week training course of the game
FutsalFutsal is a variant of association football that is mainly played indoors. Its name is derived from the Portuguese fut ebol de sal ão and the Spanish fút bol sal a/de sal ón, which can be translated as 'salon football'...
, led by noted coach
Simon CliffordSimon Darcy Clifford is an English football coach who is currently managing Garforth Town. He is a businessman known for introducing Brazilian training techniques into the UK with his Brazilian Soccer Schools....
, put Nagra through rigorous nine-hour-a-day workouts. Nagra learned to "bend" or curve the ball in flight, as she did in a scene in the film. In a nod to Nagra's actual life, director Chadha wrote and incorporated a scene about Nagra's scar into the film.
Nagra received critical and professional acclaim for her performance. She was nominated, and won, several awards, including the
FIFA Presidential AwardThe FIFA Presidential Award is an Association football award given annually at the FIFA World Player Gala. It was first awarded by the incumbent President of FIFA Sepp Blatter in 2001, and has been awarded each year since....
(2002), the first woman to have done so..
Beyond Bend It
Nagra appeared in another film not long after filming ended on
Bend It Like Beckham, playing Areida, a friend of
Anne Hathaway'sAnne Jacqueline Hathaway is an American actress. She made her acting debut in the 1999 television series Get Real, but her first prominent role was in Disney's family comedy The Princess Diaries , which established her career.She continued to appear in family films over the next three years, with...
title character, in
Ella EnchantedElla Enchanted is a 2004 fairy tale-comedy film loosely based on Gail Carson Levine's 1997 novel of the same name. The film stars Anne Hathaway as Ella and Hugh Dancy as Prince Charmont...
. In addition, Nagra took on two notable television roles for
Channel 4Channel 4 is a UK public-service television broadcaster which began working on November 2, 1982. Although commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station owned now and operated by the Channel Four Television...
—as Viola/Cesario in a multicultural version of
Shakespeare'sWilliam Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's preeminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
Twelfth Night, and as Heere Sharma in the two-part Anglo-Indian drama
Second Generation, loosely based on the Shakespeare's
King LearKing Lear is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1603 and 1606, and is considered one of his greatest works. The play is based on the legend of Leir of Britain, a mythological pre-Roman Celtic king...
, directed by
Jon SenJon Sen is a British television and film director and writer born in Bradford in 1974.Sen attended Bradford Grammar School between the 1984 and 1992. He read Political Philosophy at Trinity College, Cambridge and graduated in 1995...
and starring
Om PuriOm Puri is an Indian actor who has appeared in both mainstream Indian Cinema films as well as art films. His credits also include appearances in British and American films. He has also received an honorary OBE.-Early life:...
.
Although
Second Generation was a ratings flop, it was a huge critical success, earning a place in
The ObserverThe Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In about the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a left-liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-History:The...
newspaper's top 10 British TV programmes of 2003. It garnered Nagra an Ethnic Multicultural Media Academy (EMMA) Award. For the role, Nagra had to muster up the courage to do some of the love scenes that she had vowed not to do as an actress. Filming the final scenes in Calcutta was Nagra's first visit to India.
Hollywood
While on a promotional junket in
Los AngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the municipality of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123.445 inhabitants...
for
Bend It Like Beckham, Nagra was informed by her agent that
ERER is an American medical drama series created by novelist Michael Crichton that aired on NBC from September 1994 to April 2009. It is set primarily in the emergency room of fictional County General Hospital in Chicago, Illinois. It was produced by Constant c Productions and Amblin Entertainment in...
producer
John WellsJohn Marcum Wells is a theater and television producer, writer and director. He is best known for his role as executive producer and show runner of the television series ER, Third Watch, and The West Wing. His company, John Wells Productions, is currently based at Warner Bros. studios in Burbank,...
was interested in meeting with her. Director Gurinder Chadha claimed during a 2007 episode of BBC's Movie Connections that this meeting was her doing, because she had recommended Parminder for the role of the new Indian character in ER during a conversation with her friend Wells.
At their initial meeting, Wells made Nagra an offer to join the ensemble cast; she accepted immediately. In recalling the moment, she said, "I had to sit still and act professional, while all the time I just wanted to jump up and run around the room screaming". Not long after the meeting, Nagra signed a one-year contract that included an option for three additional years. Despite her new status, Nagra said, "I don't think Hollywood has changed me at all. The first thing I did when I arrived was buy
chapatiChapati or Chapathi is an unleavened flatbread from the Indian subcontinent. Versions of it are found in Turkmenistan, in East African countries including Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, and in West Africa in, among other countries, Ghana.-Origin:Chapati finds mention in Ain-i-Akbari , a 16th century...
flour and lentils".
Nagra made her first
ER appearance as County General Hospital medical intern
Neela RasgotraDr. Neela Rasgotra is a fictional medical doctor portrayed by Parminder Nagra on the television show ER.-Beginnings:...
on 25 September 2003, in season 10's premiere episode entitled, "Now What?". Wells adapted the character to suit Nagra, which was allowed to act with her own English accent in portraying the
YaleYale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut, and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States. Yale has produced many notable alumni, including five...
-educated Anglo-Indian Neela. Nagra would go on to appear in 21 of the season's 22 episodes, including "NICU" and "The Student", episodes in which her character was a central player.
Noah WyleNoah Strausser Speer Wyle is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Dr. John Carter on the television drama ER. He has also played Steve Jobs in the 1999 docudrama Pirates of Silicon Valley and the librarian Flynn Carsen in The Librarian TV series...
, on announcing his departure from the series, described Nagra as "the future" of
ER, and the media has concurred, anointing her as one of the show's "golden girls". Following the departure of
Maura TierneyMaura Lynn Tierney is an American film and television actress. She is best known for her roles as Lisa Miller on NewsRadio; and on ER, playing Abby Lockhart on the hospital-based show. Following ER, Tierney was set to star in the NBC series, Parenthood...
, Nagra was the female lead of
ERER is an American medical drama series created by novelist Michael Crichton that aired on NBC from September 1994 to April 2009. It is set primarily in the emergency room of fictional County General Hospital in Chicago, Illinois. It was produced by Constant c Productions and Amblin Entertainment in...
for the remainder of the series.
Nagra had the honor of being a torch bearer as the Olympic torch passed through London on its way to the
2004 Summer OlympicsThe 2004 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad, was a premier international multi-sport event held in Athens, Greece from August 13 to August 29, 2004 with the motto Welcome Home. 10,625 athletes competed, some 600 more than expected, accompanied by 5,501 team...
in Athens. Nagra finished filming season 11 of
ER later in 2005 and returned to her native Leicester to work on director Amit Gupta's
Love in Little India in which she was cast as the female lead. She was nominated in 2006 for an Asian Excellence Award, in the category of Outstanding Female Television Performance, for her work in
ER; she won the award the following year. Parminder Nagra was awarded the Honorary Degree of Doctors of Letters by the
University of LeicesterThe University of Leicester is a research led university based in Leicester, England, with approximately 20,000 registered students - about 13,000 of them full-time students and 7,000 part-time and/or distance learning...
on 11 July 2007.
Parminder Nagra was cast as Cassandra in the
DCDC Comics is one of the largest and most popular American comic book and related media companies, along with Marvel Comics. It is the publishing division of DC Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary company of Warner Bros. Entertainment...
animated movie
Batman: Gotham Knightis a 2008 animated direct-to-DVD anthology film of six animated short films set in-between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. It depicts Batman battling against the mob of Gotham City, as well as other villains before his fateful meeting with the Joker although the Producers have acknowledged that...
(2008), which was produced by
Bruce TimmBruce Walter Timm is an American character designer, animator and producer. He is also a writer and artist working in comics, and is known for his contributions building the modern DC Comics animated franchise, the DC animated universe.-Animation:Timm's early career in animation was varied; he...
, who also produced the Emmy-Award winning
Batman: The Animated SeriesBatman: The Animated Series is an American animated series adaptation of the comic book series starring the DC Comics superhero, Batman. The series is noted for being the first to take place in the DC Animated Universe. It was produced by Warner Bros. Animation.The visual style of the series is...
, the star of which,
Kevin ConroyKevin Conroy is an American actor of stage, screen and voice, best known for his voice role as Batman in numerous animated television series and feature films that comprised the DC Animated Universe.-Early life:...
, reprised his role of Batman for the film.
Personal life
On 17 January 2009 Nagra married her boyfriend of seven years James Stenson, a photographer. The couple had two ceremonies: a civil one and a Sikh one.
ER castmates
Scott GrimesScott Richard Grimes is an American actor, voice artist and musician. Some of his most prominent roles are his appearances in Band of Brothers as Technical Sergeant Donald Malarkey, ER as Dr...
(Dr. Morris) performed at the reception along with
John StamosJohn Phillip Stamos is an American actor best known for his work in television, especially as Uncle Jesse on the ABC sitcom Full House. Since the cancellation of that show in 1995, Stamos has appeared in numerous television films and series. From 2006 to 2009, Stamos had a starring role on the NBC...
(Dr. Gates) on drums; former
ER castmate and friend,
Maura TierneyMaura Lynn Tierney is an American film and television actress. She is best known for her roles as Lisa Miller on NewsRadio; and on ER, playing Abby Lockhart on the hospital-based show. Following ER, Tierney was set to star in the NBC series, Parenthood...
officiated over the ceremony. Their first child, a boy named Kai David Singh Stenson, was born on 19 May 2009..
Filmography
- Compulsion
Compulsion was a one-off ITV television drama, produced by Size 9 Productions and broadcast on 4 May, 2009. Inspired by the Jacobean tragedy The Changeling by Thomas Middleton and William Rowley, it follows a young female Cambridge graduate called Anjika Indrani and her father Satvick's attempts...
(2008) as Anjika Indrani
- Batman: Gotham Knight
is a 2008 animated direct-to-DVD anthology film of six animated short films set in-between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. It depicts Batman battling against the mob of Gotham City, as well as other villains before his fateful meeting with the Joker although the Producers have acknowledged that...
(2008) as Cassandra (voice)
- In Your Dreams (2007) as Charlie
- Maya the Indian Princess (2005) (voice)
- Ella Enchanted
Ella Enchanted is a Newbery Honor book written by Gail Carson Levine and published in 1997. It is also the title of the American movie based on the novel and released April 9, 2004 directed by Tommy O'Haver and starring Anne Hathaway and Hugh Dancy...
(2004) as Areida
- Second Generation (2003) as Heere/Sonali Sharma
- Twelfth Night (2003) as Viola
- ER
ER is an American medical drama series created by novelist Michael Crichton that aired on NBC from September 1994 to April 2009. It is set primarily in the emergency room of fictional County General Hospital in Chicago, Illinois. It was produced by Constant c Productions and Amblin Entertainment in...
(2003-2009, 129 episodes) as Dr. Neela RasgotraDr. Neela Rasgotra is a fictional medical doctor portrayed by Parminder Nagra on the television show ER.-Beginnings:...
- Always and Everyone
Always and Everyone was a British television drama that ran from 1999 to 2002. It dramatised the hectic everyday lives of the doctors and nurses running the Accident and Emergency department of the large, busy city hospital, St. Victor's. The series has never been released commercially on VHS or...
(2002, 1 episode) as Sunita Verma
- Bend It Like Beckham
Bend It Like Beckham is a film starring Parminder Nagra and Keira Knightley first released in the United Kingdom. The film was directed by Gurinder Chadha...
(2002) as Jesminder 'Jess' Bhamra
- The Swap (2002) as Hotel Receptionist
- Judge John Deed
Judge John Deed is a British legal drama television series produced by the BBC in association with One-Eyed Dog for BBC One. It was created by G.F. Newman and stars Martin Shaw as The Hon. Mr Justice Sir John Deed, a High Court judge who tries to seek real justice in the cases before him. It also...
(2001, 1 episode) as Ishbel McDonald
- Holby City
Holby City, styled as HOLBY CI+Y, is a BAFTA award winning medical drama television serial transmitted by BBC One in the United Kingdom. It is a spin-off from Casualty, and is set in the same hospital, with occasional crossovers of characters and plots...
(2000, 1 episode) as Tina
- Donovan Quick (1999) as Radhika
- Park Stories (1999)
- Casualty (1998, 1 episode) as Asha Guptah
- Goodness Gracious Me
Goodness Gracious Me is a BBC English language sketch comedy show originally on BBC Radio 4 and later televised on BBC Two based on four British Asian actors: Sanjeev Bhaskar, Kulvinder Ghir, Meera Syal and Nina Wadia...
(1998) in various roles
- Turning World (1997, 3 episodes) as Sabina
- King Girl (1996) as Ayshe
- Casualty (1996, 1 episode) as Ayisha
- Dushmani Jattan Di (1991)
Awards
| Organisation |
Year |
Result |
Award/Category |
For |
| Asian Excellence Awards The Asian Excellence Awards is an annual celebration of the outstanding achievements of Asians and Asian Americans in film, television, music, and the performing arts. The Asian Excellence Awards is the only nationally televised event celebrating significant Asian and Asian American achievements in...
|
2008 |
Nominated |
Outstanding television actress |
ER |
| Asian Excellence Awards |
2007 |
Won |
Outstanding television actress |
ER |
| Morgan Stanley Great Britons Awards |
2006 |
Nominated |
Arts |
|
| South Asian Students' Alliance |
2005 |
Won |
Recognition of Excellence Award
Outstanding Achievement in Acting (Female) |
ER |
| Teen Choice Awards The Teen Choice Awards is an awards show presented annually by FOX. The program honors the year's biggest achievements in music, movies, sports, television, fashion and more, as voted on by teens aged 13–19. The program usually features a high number of celebrities and musical performers...
|
2004 |
Nominated |
Choice Breakout TV Star - Female |
ER |
| Ethnic Multicultural Media Awards EMMA - the Ethnic Multicultural Media Academy - was founded in 1997 by Bobby Syed. The first award presentation took place in 1998 at the Dorchester Hotel, Park Lane, London and was hosted by TV presenter Lisa Aziz and journalist/broadcaster Darcus Howe.According to Bobby Syed: "EMMA seeks to...
|
2004 |
Won |
Best Television Actress |
Second Generation (2003) |
| Movieline Young Hollywood Awards |
2004 |
Won |
Breakthrough Performance by a Female |
Bend It Like Beckham (2002) |
| Internet Movie Awards |
2004 |
Nominated |
Best Breakthrough Performance |
Bend It Like Beckham (2002) |
| Empire Awards Since 1995, Empire—Britain's biggest selling film magazine—has organised the annual Empire Movie Awards. They were sponsored by Sony Ericsson until 2009 and are now sponsored by Jameson...
|
2003 |
Nominated |
Best Newcomer |
Bend It Like Beckham (2002) |
| 7th Annual Hollywood Film Festival Awards |
2003 |
Nominated |
Hollywood Actress of the Year |
Bend It Like Beckham (2002) |
| Ethnic Multicultural Media Awards |
2003 |
Nominated |
Best Actress (Film) |
Bend It Like Beckham (2002) |
| Federation Internationale de Football Association |
2002 |
Won |
FIFA Presidential AwardThe FIFA Presidential Award is an Association football award given annually at the FIFA World Player Gala. It was first awarded by the incumbent President of FIFA Sepp Blatter in 2001, and has been awarded each year since....
|
Bend It Like Beckham (2002) |
| Bordeaux International Festival of Women in Cinema |
2002 |
Won |
Golden Wave
Best Actress
(Meilleure Comédienne Long Métrage) |
Bend It Like Beckham (2002)
Tied with Keira Knightley |
| British Independent Film Awards The "British Independent Film Awards" is an annual award ceremony celebrating achievement in independently funded British movies. The 2008 Award ceremony took place in the Old Billingsgate Market and was hosted by James Nesbitt. This years ceremony will take place on December 6th 2009 in central...
|
2002 |
Nominated |
Most Promising Newcomer |
Bend It Like Beckham (2002) |
| European Film Awards |
2002 |
Nominated |
Audience Award Best Actress |
Bend It Like Beckham (2002) |
| Carlton Multicultural Achievement Awards |
2002 |
Nominated |
Film |
Bend It Like Beckham (2002) |
External links