Born in 1961 near Wolverhampton, England, Meera Syal is an actress, author, scriptwriter, and comedienne of Indian descent who has made an indelible mark in the British televisual, radio, literary, and theatrical arenas. Syal’s parents, Surendra Syal and Surrinder Uppal, are Indian Punjabis, and since 2005, she has been married to Sanjeev Bhaskar—a British actor and presenter. Her writing career has partly been shaped by her education at Manchester University, where she earned her English and Drama honors degree. During this phase of theatrical and literary education, she co-wrote and acted in One of Us—a production that won her the National Student Drama Award. Owing to her cultural roots in India, a unique ethnic consciousness, the travails of fraught diasporic identity, and critical allusions to her homeland often pervade her works.