Meera Syal

Like her character Meena Kumar, Feroza Syal, the daughter of Indian immigrants, was born in a small mining town in central England. After studying English and Drama at the University of Manchester, she began acting and writing stage plays. These experiences led her to pursue a multi-faceted career as an actor, a journalist, and a writer for radio and television. However, it is her talents as a novelist that ultimately brought her fame, as her 1996 semi-autobiographical novel Anita and Me was published to critical acclaim. In 2017, Syal was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.