Meera Syal

Acting

Meera Syal

Born 1961-06-27 · Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England, UK

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Meera Syal MBE (born Feeroza Syal on 27 June 1961) is a British comedienne, writer, playwright, singer, journalist, producer and actress. She rose to prominence as one of the team that created Goodness Gracious Me and became one of the UK's best-known Indian personalities portraying Sanjeev's grandmother, Ummi, in The Kumars at No. 42. She was awarded the MBE in the New Year's Honours List of 1997 and in 2003 was listed in The Observer as one of the fifty funniest acts in British comedy. Description above from the Wikipedia article Meera Syal, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Acting credits

Doctor Strange poster
7.4

After his career is destroyed, a brilliant but arrogant surgeon gets a new lease on life when a sorcerer takes him under her wing and trains him to defend the world against evil.

Doctor Strange

2016

Alice Through the Looking Glass poster
6.6

Alice Kingsleigh returns to Underland and faces a new adventure in saving the Mad Hatter.

Alice Through the Looking Glass

2016

Yesterday poster
6.7

A struggling musician realizes he's the only person on Earth who can remember The Beatles after waking up in an alternate reality where the group was forgotten.

Yesterday

2019

Paddington 2 poster
7.5

Paddington, now happily settled with the Browns, picks up a series of odd jobs to buy the perfect present for his Aunt Lucy, but it is stolen.

Paddington 2

2017

The Nutcracker and the Four Realms poster
6.1

When Clara’s mother leaves her a mysterious gift, she embarks on a journey to four secret realms—where she discovers her greatest strength could change the world.

The Nutcracker and the Four Realms

2018

Absolutely Anything poster
5.9

Eccentric aliens give a man the power to do anything he wants to determine if Earth is worth saving.

Absolutely Anything

2015

Desert Flower poster
7.6

The autobiography of a Somalian nomad who was sold in marriage at 13, fled from Africa a while later to become finally an American supermodel and is now at the age of 38, the UN spokeswoman against female genital mutilation.

Desert Flower

2009

The Canterville Ghost poster
6.6

An American family moves in to the Canterville Chase, a London mansion that has been haunted by ghost Sir Simon De Canterville for 300 years.

The Canterville Ghost

2023

Dragon Rider poster
6.9

An unlikely trio of heroes – a dragon, a boy and a forest brownie – embark on an epic adventure to find the “Rim of Heaven” - the mythological safe haven for all dragons.

Dragon Rider

2020

Scoop poster
6.6

An American journalism student in London scoops a big story, and begins an affair with an aristocrat as the incident unfurls.

Scoop

2006

You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger poster
5.9

Two married couples find only trouble and heartache as their complicated lives unfold. After 40 years of marriage, Alfie leaves his wife to pursue what he thinks is happiness with a call girl. His wife, Helena, reeling from abandonment, decides to follow the advice of a psychic. Sally, the daughter of Alfie and Helena, is unhappy in her marriage and develops a crush on her boss, while her husband, Roy, falls for a woman engaged to be married.

You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger

2010

Patrick poster
6.7

A woman's chaotic life becomes more complicated when she inherits her grandmother's dog.

Patrick

2018

Beautiful Thing poster
7.2

During a long, hot summer on the Thamesmead Estate in Southeast London, three teenagers edge towards adulthood.

Beautiful Thing

1996

Tinsel Town poster
5.8

A washed-up Hollywood action hero is tricked into starring in a small English town’s chaotic Christmas pantomime, where a straight-talking dance instructor and his estranged daughter just might help him rediscover the magic of the season.

Tinsel Town

2025

Spin poster
6.9

Rhea lives with her tight-knit multigenerational family. After her mother’s death, she has been her father’s emotional rock, and her life revolves around her family’s restaurant, her eclectic group of friends, and her after-school coding club. Everything changes when she falls for aspiring DJ Max and a long lost passion for music is reignited. Rhea discovers that she has a natural gift for creating beats and producing music that blends her Indian heritage, but must find the courage to follow her true inner talent.

Spin

2021

Handsworth Songs poster
5.9

The Black Audio Film Collective’s acclaimed essay film, 'Handsworth Songs', examines the 1985 race riots in Handsworth and London. Interweaving archival photographs, newsreel clips, and home movie footage, the film is both an exploration of documentary aesthetics and a broad meditation social and cultural oppression through Britain’s intertwined narratives of racism and economic decline.

Handsworth Songs

1986

Sammy and Rosie Get Laid poster
5.7

Sammy and Rosie are an unconventional middle-class London married couple. They live in the midst of inner-city chaos, surround themselves with intellectual street people, and sleep with everybody - except each other! Things become interesting when Sammy's father, Rafi, who is a former Indian government minister, comes to London for a visit. Sammy, Rosie, and Rafi try to find meaning through their lives and loves.

Sammy and Rosie Get Laid

1987

The Smeds and the Smoos poster
6.8

In this animated intergalactic adventure, the red Smeds and the blue Smoos must learn to overcome their differences and work together to find young Janet and Bill – who eloped to escape their families’ long standing rivalries.

The Smeds and the Smoos

2023

Girls' Night poster
6.8

Two British best friends and in-laws Dawn and Jackie work together at a factory. When Dawn is diagnosed with a brain tumor Jackie shares $100,000 she's got from her secret lover with Dawn to fulfil her dream - a visit to Las Vegas. They buy two tickets and fly there...

Girls' Night

1998

Anita and Me poster
6.0

Meena, a 12-year-old living in a mining village in the English Midlands in 1972, is the daughter of Indian parents who've come to England to give her a better life. This idyllic existence is upset by the arrival in the village of Anita Rutter and her dysfunctional family.

Anita and Me

2002

Crossing the Floor poster
6.8

Political satire closely mirroring real-life British politics of the time - a self-serving Conservative minister "crosses the floor" to join the opposition Labour Party, at a time when the Conservative Party has a majority in Parliament of just one seat. Sequel to A Very Open Prison.

Crossing the Floor

1996

Sixth Happiness poster
4.8

Waris Hussein’s acclaimed drama is based on the autobiography of Firdaus Kanga, who stars in the lead role of Brit, a young man born with brittle bone disease, which causes him to have never grown beyond four feet tall. The film follows his sexual awakening whilst his family simultaneously disintegrates all around him. An extremely moving drama confronting stereotypes around disability, sexuality and race, featuring a powerhouse performance from Kanga.

Sixth Happiness

1997

The Almond and the Seahorse poster
4.9

For Gwen, it's always 1999. The face in the mirror is unfamiliar and her partner isn't recognizable to her despite waking up together every day. Joe's past is coming undone and his partner, Sarah, fears she will be forgotten. A doctor refuses to give up on them, determined not to let them unravel.

The Almond and the Seahorse

2022

Branagh Theatre Live: Romeo and Juliet poster
8.0

Live theatre presentation of Shakespeare's classic play about two teenagers from warring families whose love affair ends in tragedy.

Branagh Theatre Live: Romeo and Juliet

2016

Behind the camera