Parminder Nagra - Fact Sheet

Profession: Actress

Before she turned 20, Nagra had left Leicester for London, forgoing university to pursue a theatrical career and her childhood dreams of becoming an actress. After selling her prized viola, she found herself living alone in Peckham, South London employed in a stocktaking job and struggling to find theatrical work. Nagra’s first London theatrical job came in 1994 when she was cast as the Princess in Sleeping Beauty, a Christmas-time pantomime production at the Theatre Royal Stratford East. Although most critics seemed not to be impressed with the show, Nagra’s performance is notable in that she was a woman of color portraying a traditionally white character. After Sleeping Beauty, Nagra worked with small Asian theatre companies such as Tara Arts and Tamasha. The roles marked the first of many early career opportunities in theatre that led eventually 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 Monzaemon and performed at Cottesloe, Royal National Theatre. It was there that she met Irish actor Kieran Creggan, with whom she later moved into a Kennington, South London flat. Their relationship continued for five years. 

Click here for biography in its original context.