Shreela Ghosh
Encyclopedia
Shreela Ghosh a former dancer, actress and reporter, became publicly known in the United Kingdom
when she was cast as Naima Jeffery
in 1985, one of the original characters in BBC
's soap opera, EastEnders
. She has since given up performing to work as an arts executive. She was the first programme director for Arts and Heritage at the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, and went on to become the Deputy Director for the Institute of International Visual Arts (InIVA
). She now is the Director of the Free Word Centre
.
and Kathak
) Indian dancer and singer. At the age of seventeen — after acquiring an agent and an equity card
— she worked extensively in theatre
, which included work with leading organisations such as Max Stafford-Clark
’s Joint Stock Theatre Company
where she was also working as Marketing and Publicity Officer. Television work followed with roles in Play For Today
productions The Garland in 1981, and Moving on the Edge in 1984. She also had roles in the BBC nursing drama Angels
(1982) and played Minnie in the successful televised ITV
mini-series, The Jewel in the Crown, in 1984. Although Ghosh was not trained as an actor in a conventional sense, her coaching in voice and the dramatic techniques she had learnt from Indian dance came into play for many of her roles.
Ghosh continued her television career in 1985 when she was cast as Naima Jeffery
, one of the original characters in the BBC
soap opera, EastEnders
. Naima and her husband Saeed
(Andrew Johnson
) were the first Asian
characters to appear in the programme, an ethnic minority that had previously been under-represented in British soap. Their inclusion was also a well-intentioned attempt to reflect the cross-section of multi-cultural society that existed in the East End of London
. Ghosh remained in the series til 1987.
After leaving EastEnders, Ghosh grew disillusioned with acting, partly due to the frustration of being typecast in stereotypical Asian roles. She re-trained as a reporter through a successful application to an action scheme run by the BBC News and Current Affairs department in Pebble Mill, Birmingham
. Throughout 1990 and 1991 she reported on programmes such as Midlands Today
, Newsroom South East
and South Today
, and she then went on to make documentaries.
Two years later she became the director of a national dance agency named Aditi (then the national organisation for South Asian dance), which was based in Yorkshire
, before moving from arts management to arts funding by joining the Arts Council of England
when the Capital Programme was rolled out in 1994.
Five years on Ghosh was appointed Head of Arts for the London Borough of Tower Hamlets
. She then moved to the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, which is one of the largest independent grantmaking foundations in the UK. Ghosh became the foundation's first programme director for Arts and Heritage. From 2003-2005 she served on the Fellowship Committee at NESTA
(National Endowment of Science Technology & Arts), and she took a position as a Trustee of the European Cultural Foundation.
In October 2006 Ghosh worked on the launch exhibition for the Louise T Blouin
Institute in west London
— which boasts 35000 square feet (3,251.6 m²) of galleries, studios and space for community projects and held an inaugural exhibition by renowned contemporary artist, James Turrell
. She also became a board member on the Cultural Leadership Programme — a two year £12 million initiative to promote excellence in management and leadership within the cultural sector — launched by Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown
, in June 2006 and chaired by the M&C Saatchi
founding director, David Kershaw.
In 2007, Ghosh worked as Deputy Director for the Institute of International Visual Arts (InIVA). The organisation focuses on introducing the public to artists from culturally diverse backgrounds, by way of exhibitions, publications, multimedia, education and research projects.
As of 2009, Ghosh has moved on to work as the Director of the Free Word Centre
which works to promote literature, literacy and freedom of expression.
, Ghosh left Bengal
when she was eleven and moved to England, where she has lived ever since. She has several children and has admitted to being a sufferer of post-natal depression. One of her children was born in 1985 and her character, Naima, was written out of EastEnders for a few months in order for her to have the baby. In the on-screen story, Naima walked out on Saeed after she learnt a few unsavoury things abut his character.
While she was working as a Liaison Officer at the Arts Council she undertook an MA
in European Cultural Policy & Administration at the University of Warwick
on a part-time basis and in 2005 she began a course in History of Art
at Birkbeck University
.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
when she was cast as Naima Jeffery
Naima Jeffery
Naima Jeffery is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Shreela Ghosh.Asian Naima tried to embrace Western culture, but this wasn't easy since her family constantly tried to force her to adhere to their ancient customs...
in 1985, one of the original characters in BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
's soap opera, EastEnders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
. She has since given up performing to work as an arts executive. She was the first programme director for Arts and Heritage at the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, and went on to become the Deputy Director for the Institute of International Visual Arts (InIVA
InIVA
Iniva is the Institute of International Visual Art, an arts institution that represents artists, curators and writers. It consists of exhibition spaces and the Stuart Hall Library, and together with Autograph ABP is housed in Rivington Place, a visual arts centre in Shoreditch, in the heart of...
). She now is the Director of the Free Word Centre
Free Word Centre
The Free Word Centre is an international centre promoting literature, literacy and free expression, based in Farringdon, London. It is funded by the Arts council and its director is Rose Fenton. It opened in June 2009 and hosts ten resident organisations including ARTICLE 19, English PEN and Index...
.
Career
Ghosh began her working life as a performer, a classical (BharatanatyamBharatanatyam
Bharata Natyam or Chadhir Attam, is a classical dance form from the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, practiced predominantly in modern times by women. The dance is usually accompanied by classical Carnatic music...
and Kathak
Kathak
Kathak is one of the eight forms of Indian classical dances, originated from Uttar Pradesh, India. This dance form traces its origins to the nomadic bards of ancient northern India, known as Kathaks, or storytellers...
) Indian dancer and singer. At the age of seventeen — after acquiring an agent and an equity card
Equity Card
An Equity Card is proof of membership in an organization of stage actors such as the Actors' Equity Association of the United States or the British Equity...
— she worked extensively in theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
, which included work with leading organisations such as Max Stafford-Clark
Max Stafford-Clark
Maxwell Robert Guthrie Stewart Stafford-Clark is an English Theatre Director.-Life and career:He went to school at Felsted and Riverdale Country School in New York City. He has worked as a theatre director since he left Trinity College, Dublin.His directing career began as associate director of...
’s Joint Stock Theatre Company
Joint Stock Theatre Company
The Joint Stock Theatre Company was founded in London 1974 by David Hare, Max Stafford-Clark and David Aukin. The director William Gaskill was also an important part of the company. It was primarily a new work company....
where she was also working as Marketing and Publicity Officer. Television work followed with roles in Play For Today
Play for Today
Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted...
productions The Garland in 1981, and Moving on the Edge in 1984. She also had roles in the BBC nursing drama Angels
Angels (TV series)
Angels was originally a British television seasonal drama series dealing with the subject of student nurses and was broadcast by the BBC between 1975 and 1978. The show's format then switched to a twice weekly soap opera format from 1979 to 1983. The show's title derived from the name of the...
(1982) and played Minnie in the successful televised ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
mini-series, The Jewel in the Crown, in 1984. Although Ghosh was not trained as an actor in a conventional sense, her coaching in voice and the dramatic techniques she had learnt from Indian dance came into play for many of her roles.
Ghosh continued her television career in 1985 when she was cast as Naima Jeffery
Naima Jeffery
Naima Jeffery is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Shreela Ghosh.Asian Naima tried to embrace Western culture, but this wasn't easy since her family constantly tried to force her to adhere to their ancient customs...
, one of the original characters in the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
soap opera, EastEnders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
. Naima and her husband Saeed
Saeed Jeffery
Saeed Jeffery is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Andrew Johnson.Saeed was the original owner of the First til Last grocery store. He was never truly accepted in Walford, and his arranged marriage ended in divorce after it was discovered that he'd been making...
(Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson (actor)
Andrew Johnson is a British Asian actor.He is most famous for being one of the original cast members of EastEnders, playing the shop-keeper Saeed Jeffery from February 1985 - December 1985...
) were the first Asian
Asian people
Asian people or Asiatic people is a term with multiple meanings that refers to people who descend from a portion of Asia's population.- Central Asia :...
characters to appear in the programme, an ethnic minority that had previously been under-represented in British soap. Their inclusion was also a well-intentioned attempt to reflect the cross-section of multi-cultural society that existed in the East End of London
East End of London
The East End of London, also known simply as the East End, is the area of London, England, United Kingdom, east of the medieval walled City of London and north of the River Thames. Although not defined by universally accepted formal boundaries, the River Lea can be considered another boundary...
. Ghosh remained in the series til 1987.
After leaving EastEnders, Ghosh grew disillusioned with acting, partly due to the frustration of being typecast in stereotypical Asian roles. She re-trained as a reporter through a successful application to an action scheme run by the BBC News and Current Affairs department in Pebble Mill, Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
. Throughout 1990 and 1991 she reported on programmes such as Midlands Today
Midlands Today
Midlands Today is the BBC's regional television news programme for the West Midlands region, which covers the north of Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and the West Midlands county...
, Newsroom South East
Newsroom South East
Newsroom South East was the name of the BBC's regional news programme for southeastern England. It was launched in March 1989 as the successor to London Plus, the South East's previous news programme...
and South Today
South Today
South Today is the BBC's regional television news programme for East Dorset, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Berkshire, West Sussex and the western fringes of Surrey...
, and she then went on to make documentaries.
Two years later she became the director of a national dance agency named Aditi (then the national organisation for South Asian dance), which was based in Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
, before moving from arts management to arts funding by joining the Arts Council of England
Arts Council England
Arts Council England was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council of Great Britain was divided into three separate bodies for England, Scotland and Wales. It is a non-departmental public body of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport...
when the Capital Programme was rolled out in 1994.
Five years on Ghosh was appointed Head of Arts for the London Borough of Tower Hamlets
London Borough of Tower Hamlets
The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is a London borough to the east of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It is in the eastern part of London and covers much of the traditional East End. It also includes much of the redeveloped Docklands region of London, including West India Docks...
. She then moved to the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, which is one of the largest independent grantmaking foundations in the UK. Ghosh became the foundation's first programme director for Arts and Heritage. From 2003-2005 she served on the Fellowship Committee at NESTA
NESTA
The National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts is an independent endowment in the United Kingdom established by an Act of Parliament in 1998....
(National Endowment of Science Technology & Arts), and she took a position as a Trustee of the European Cultural Foundation.
In October 2006 Ghosh worked on the launch exhibition for the Louise T Blouin
Louise Blouin MacBain
Louise Thérèse Blouin , is a French-Canadian magazine publisher and philanthropist. She is the CEO and President of Louise Blouin Media, and the founder and chairman of the Louise T Blouin Foundation.-Early life:...
Institute in west London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
— which boasts 35000 square feet (3,251.6 m²) of galleries, studios and space for community projects and held an inaugural exhibition by renowned contemporary artist, James Turrell
James Turrell
James Turrell is an American artist primarily concerned with light and space. Turrell was a MacArthur Fellow in 1984. He is represented by The Pace Gallery in New York...
. She also became a board member on the Cultural Leadership Programme — a two year £12 million initiative to promote excellence in management and leadership within the cultural sector — launched by Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...
, in June 2006 and chaired by the M&C Saatchi
M&C Saatchi
M&C Saatchi is an international advertising agency network formed in January 1995 by the brothers Maurice Saatchi and Charles Saatchi after they were ousted from the advertising agency group Saatchi & Saatchi which they had founded in 1970...
founding director, David Kershaw.
In 2007, Ghosh worked as Deputy Director for the Institute of International Visual Arts (InIVA). The organisation focuses on introducing the public to artists from culturally diverse backgrounds, by way of exhibitions, publications, multimedia, education and research projects.
As of 2009, Ghosh has moved on to work as the Director of the Free Word Centre
Free Word Centre
The Free Word Centre is an international centre promoting literature, literacy and free expression, based in Farringdon, London. It is funded by the Arts council and its director is Rose Fenton. It opened in June 2009 and hosts ten resident organisations including ARTICLE 19, English PEN and Index...
which works to promote literature, literacy and freedom of expression.
Personal life
Although born in South AsiaSouth Asia
South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...
, Ghosh left Bengal
Bengal
Bengal is a historical and geographical region in the northeast region of the Indian Subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. Today, it is mainly divided between the sovereign land of People's Republic of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, although some regions of the previous...
when she was eleven and moved to England, where she has lived ever since. She has several children and has admitted to being a sufferer of post-natal depression. One of her children was born in 1985 and her character, Naima, was written out of EastEnders for a few months in order for her to have the baby. In the on-screen story, Naima walked out on Saeed after she learnt a few unsavoury things abut his character.
While she was working as a Liaison Officer at the Arts Council she undertook an MA
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
in European Cultural Policy & Administration at the University of Warwick
University of Warwick
The University of Warwick is a public research university located in Coventry, United Kingdom...
on a part-time basis and in 2005 she began a course in History of Art
History of art
The History of art refers to visual art which may be defined as any activity or product made by humans in a visual form for aesthetical or communicative purposes, expressing ideas, emotions or, in general, a worldview...
at Birkbeck University
Birkbeck, University of London
Birkbeck, University of London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It offers many Master's and Bachelor's degree programmes that can be studied either part-time or full-time, though nearly all teaching is...
.
Filmography
- EastEndersEastEndersEastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
(1985–1987) Naima Jeffery - The Jewel in the Crown (1984) Minnie
- Play For TodayPlay for TodayPlay for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted...
- Moving on the Edge (1984) - AngelsAngels (TV series)Angels was originally a British television seasonal drama series dealing with the subject of student nurses and was broadcast by the BBC between 1975 and 1978. The show's format then switched to a twice weekly soap opera format from 1979 to 1983. The show's title derived from the name of the...
(1982) Yasmin - Play For TodayPlay for TodayPlay for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted...
- The Garland (1981) Amina