Meera Syal MBE (born Feroza Syal in Wolverhampton, England) is a British comedian, writer, playwright, singer, journalist and actress, rising to prominence as one of the team that created Goodness Gracious Me and becoming one of the UK's best-known Indian personalities. She was awarded the MBE in the New Year's Honours List of 1997.
Appointed an MBE in 1997.
Her book, Bombay Dreams, was adapted into a London West End Musical at the Apollo Theatre and was nominated for a 2003 Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for The Hilton Award for Best New Musical of 2002.
Daughter, Chameli, with journalist Chandra Shekhar Bhatia.
Grew up in a Punjabi family in the mining village of Essington in England.
Her parents moved to England from New Delhi before she was born; they eloped in order to be together as one was Sikh and the other Hindu.
Is an accomplished writer and actress.
Attended Manchester University, where she read English and Drama. In her final year there, she won the National Student Drama Award.
Son Shaan, with Sanjeev Bhaskar, born 2 December 2005.
The film "Anita and Me" which she wrote and had a role in was very much an autobiography of her own adolescence in the Midlands
