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Shobna Gulati (born 7 August 1966)[1] is a British actress and presenter. Gulati is known for her roles as Anita in dinnerladies, and Sunita Alahan in the soap opera Coronation Street from 2001 to 2013. From 2013 to 2014, Gulati appeared as a panellist on the lunchtime talk show Loose Women. She took over the role of Ray in the West End production of Everybody's Taking About Jamie in 2019 and also reprised the role for the movie adaptation. Most recently, she played the role of Nima in Hullraisers, Mari Hoff in the 2022 UK Tour of The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, and is reprising the role of Ray in Everybody's Talking About Jamie for the 2023-2024 UK and Ireland Tour.[2]
 Gulati in 2012 | |
| Born | 7 August 1966 Oldham, Lancashire, England |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1991–present |
| Television | |
| Spouse |
Anshu Srivastava
(m. 1990; div. 1994) |
| Children | 1 (Akshay Gulati) |
Gulati was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2024 Birthday Honours for services to the cultural industries.[3]
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Gulati was born in Oldham, Lancashire, to Punjabi Hindu parents. She grew up in the Salcombe area of Openshaw, Manchester, where she became friends with actress Sarah Lancashire.[4] She has a degree in Arabic and Middle Eastern politics from the University of Manchester.[1]
One of Gulati's earliest appearances was as a dancer in the video for Boy George's 1991 single "Bow Down Mister". In the late 1990s, she appeared in both series of Victoria Wood's BBC sitcom dinnerladies. She appeared as Ameena Badawi from October to December 2000 in EastEnders. She appeared in Coronation Street as Sunita and in the same role in "East Street", a crossover between both soaps, as part of the 2010 Children In Need telethon. In 2001, she appeared in the short film Shadowscan, directed by Tinge Krishnan, which won a Bafta Award and, in 2004, was nominated for a Manchester Evening News theatre award for her work in the play Dancing Within Walls, which was staged at the Contact Theatre in Manchester.
Gulati has also appeared on the TV quiz shows Call My Bluff, Have I Got News for You, The Weakest Link, Russian Roulette and as Diana Ross in Celebrity Stars in Their Eyes. In early 2006, Gulati took part in the Reality TV series Soapstar Superstar.
After Gulati left Coronation Street for the first time in 2006, she played Nisha Clayton, a regular role in the final series of Where the Heart Is, and made appearances in New Street Law and the one-off comedy drama Magnolia, which was written by Dave Spikey for BBC's Comedy Playhouse series.
In October 2006, Gulati appeared at the Royal Albert Hall as part of a short skit featured in The Secret Policeman's Ball. In the sketch, Gulati and her co-star Nitin Ganatra play a holidaying couple who are under the mistaken belief Guantanamo Bay is a holiday resort. The sketch also starred the American actors Chevy Chase and Seth Green.
Gulati was one of the storytellers in a CBBC revival of Jackanory and in the UK tour of the hit play Girls Night by Louise Roche. She also appeared on the Channel 4 special Empire's Children, tracing her family's history during the partition of India. In summer 2007, she appeared in Pretend You Have Big Buildings at the Royal Exchange, Manchester.
In 2008, Gulati made her debut as a filmmaker, producing the short film Akshay for the motiroti's 60x60 Secs.[5] This was shortlisted for the Satyajit Ray short film awards. During this same period, she returned to her Coronation Street role as Sunita Alahan, where she stayed for three years.[6]
On 11 June 2009, Gulati appeared in the BBC1 programme Celebrity MasterChef. She did the first stage tour of dinnerladies in early 2009 and she has appeared as a guest story teller for Bedtime Stories on CBBC. Gulati made her Loose Women debut on 18 November 2010 to celebrate 50 years of Coronation Street, appearing with regulars Kate Thornton, Sherrie Hewson and Carol McGiffin. Gulati returned to the show on 11 April 2012 appearing alongside regulars Andrea McLean, Jane McDonald and Janet Street-Porter during soap week. Gulati returned to the show as a regular from 13 March 2013, taking over from Sally Lindsay who took time off to film Mount Pleasant, from September 2013, Gulati became an occasional panellist on the show, before leaving on 30 May 2014.
In June 2011, Gulati was a guest on Countdown. Announcing her departure from Coronation Street, she expressed her desire to write and perform more comedy than her work in a soap opera had permitted her time to do.[6] In 2016, she appeared in the ITV/Netflix series Paranoid. Gulati made a guest appearance in Casualty on 29 October 2016.
In 2017, she appeared as Saba in the British romantic comedy film Finding Fatimah.[7] In 2018, Gulati appeared in the Doctor Who episodes "Arachnids in the UK" and "Demons of the Punjab" as Najia Khan, mother of The Doctor's companion Yaz Khan.[8]
Gulati played Ray in the West End production of Everybody's Talking About Jamie at the Apollo Theatre in 2018.[9] Now adapted as a screenplay, Gulati played the part of Ray alongside Sarah Lancashire. Everybody's Talking About Jamie was released on 17 September 2021.[10] In 2022, she led the company of The Rise and Fall of Little Voice as Mari Hoff, and starred in the show alongside her son Akshay.[11] Gulati is reprising the role of Ray in the 2023-2024 UK and Ireland Tour of Everybody's Talking About Jamie.[12]
Gulati wrote a memoir titled Remember Me? on losing a parent to dementia based on her experiences caring for her mother, who died in 2019.[13] During publicity interviews for the book, Gulati revealed that she had contracted Coronavirus earlier in 2020.[14]
In May 2021, Gulati starred as Vicky in the three-part comedy drama murder mystery series, Murder, They Hope.[15]
In December 2022, Gulati appeared as Posy in the Christmas special of BBC dark comedy Inside No. 9, "The Bones of St Nicholas".[16][17]
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Gulati is the daughter of K. A. Gulati who arrived in Oldham from Bombay, India, in 1960.[18] She has a younger brother, Rajesh, and two older sisters, Sushma and Hema.[18]
Gulati married the architect Anshu Srivastava in a Hindu ceremony on 10 November 1990; the couple divorced in May 1994.[19] Shobna lived separately from her husband and became pregnant.[20][21] From 1999 to 2003, Shobna was in a relationship with the ex-Emmerdale actor Gary Turner.[19]
Gulati has a working knowledge of six languages and is a vocal supporter of Asian women's rights and various anti-racism campaigns.[22] Shobna works on female body image issues.[23] Shobna is a supporter and a season ticket holder of Manchester United.[24]
In 2015, Shobna was appointed as a deputy lieutenant of Greater Manchester. This gives her the right to use the Post Nominal Letters "DL" for life.[25]
Shafilea Ahmed
Gulati was asked to help a murder hunt in December 2004 following the murder of Shafilea Ahmed. At a press conference appealing for more information, Gulati read out some of the poems found in her bedroom during their investigations which "were a testimony to her sadness at being caught in a culture clash with other members of her family". After the reading, Gulati said that she believed they showed that Shafilea was trapped between two cultures. "It can be very difficult if you are born here but your parents were not and there can be a lot of cultural issues," she said. "It is a situation facing many young Asian women who are unable to express themselves properly within their families. I feel these words are the sort of style she would use when talking with her friends. If she is out there she should let people know she is safe because there are organizations and individuals who can help her."[26]
Gulati said that she sympathised with the teenager's difficulty in balancing her culture with her upbringing. "She has obviously been unable to express herself in terms of her family and she probably talks like this to her friends, or has written these songs in private."[27]
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| Year | Title | Role | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | What Do You Call an Indian Woman Who's Funny? | herself | Gurinder Chadha's short documentary focusing on Gulati, Nina Wadia, Parminder Chadha, and Syreeta Kumar |
| 1998–2000 | dinnerladies | Anita | 16 episodes |
| 1999 | Hetty Wainthropp Investigates | Cafe assistant | Television short |
| 2000 | EastEnders | Ameena | 6 episodes |
| 2001 | Shadowscan | Satinda | Short film |
| 2001–2006, 2009–2013 | Coronation Street | Sunita Alahan | 674 episodes |
| 2006 | New Street Law | Salina Morris | |
| Where the Heart Is | Nisha Clayton | 5 episodes | |
| Magnolia | Janice | Television film | |
| 2007 | Honey and Razor Blades | Shanti | Short film |
| 2008 | Coming Up | Maya | 1 episode |
| 2011 | Junkhearts | Beth | |
| 2014 | In the Club | Fiona | 5 episodes |
| 2014–2017 | Doctors | Gina Kasana / Sujatha Shah | 5 episodes |
| 2017 | Finding Fatimah | Saba | |
| 2017–2018 | River City | Farah Khurana | 9 episodes |
| 2018 | Hold the Sunset | Desiree | Episode: "Old Flames" |
| 2018–2019 | Treasure Champs | Kari | 28 episodes; Voice only |
| 2018–2020 | Doctor Who | Najia Khan | 4 episodes |
| 2020 | Adulting | Shona | Television film |
| On the Edge | Andi | Episode: "For You" | |
| 2021 | Everybody's Talking about Jamie | Ray | |
| Murder, They Hope | Vicky | 3 episodes | |
| Celebrity Best Home Cook | Herself | Participant | |
| Midsomer Murders | Shaila Handsworth | Episode: "For Death Prepare" | |
| Going the Distance | Vic | Television film | |
| 2022 | My Name is Leon | Salma | Television film |
| Hullraisers | Nima | ||
| Inside No. 9 | Posy | Series 8 episode 1: "The Bones of St Nicholas"[28] |
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- Remember Me?: Discovering My Mother as She Lost Her Memory, Octopus Publishing Group (Hachette UK) Hardcover ISBN 978-1-78840-247-7; Paperback ISBN 978-1-914240-58-4
Commonwealth honours
- Commonwealth honours
| Country | Date | Appointment | Post-nominal letters |
|---|---|---|---|
 United Kingdom | 9 March 2015 – present | Deputy Lieutenant of Greater Manchester[29][30] | DL |
| United Kingdom | 15 June 2024 – present | Member of the Order of the British Empire (Civil Division)[31] | MBE |
Scholastic
- University degrees
| Location | Date | University | Degree |
|---|---|---|---|
 England | 1988 | University of Manchester | Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Arabic and Middle Eastern politics[32] |
- Honorary degrees
| Location | Date | University | Degree |
|---|---|---|---|
| England | 2006 | University of Huddersfield | Doctor of Letters (D.Litt)[33] |
 |
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