Meera Syal

Sutida Wimuttikosol (King's College London)

Ed. by Jenni Ramone, The Nottingham Trent University
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Gina Lyle (University of York), Graham MacPhee (University of Manchester), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

Born 27 Jun 1961
Activity 1983-ongoing

Places

Active in United Kingdom

Cultural Identities

British Asian

Activities

Primary

Novelist

Other

Theatre actor

Resources

Syal's Works

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Meera Syal, one of the best-known Asians in Britain (Ranasinha, 2007, 247), had a pivotal role in the greater visibility of British Asian and Indian culture in the British mainstream media during the 1990s. She wrote the screenplay for

Bhaji on the Beach

(Gurinder Chadha, 1993), the first British film written and directed by a British Asian woman.

Goodness Gracious Me

(1996-2001), the BBC sketch show she co-created and in which she was a cast member, introduced British Asian comedy to UK radio and television audiences. Her debut novel,

Anita and Me

(1996), was adapted into a film (Metin Hüseyin, 2002) and a stage play (Roxana Silbert, 2015 and 2017), and has been included in the UK’s GCSE English set texts. Receiving an honorary doctorate from SOAS University of London in 2013, Syal…

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1247 words

Citation: Wimuttikosol, Sutida. "Meera Syal". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 November 2017 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=13974, accessed 21 November 2024.]