Rakhee Thakrar (born 29 February 1984[1]) is an English actress. She is known for her roles as Shabnam Masood in the BBC One soap opera EastEnders (2014–2016) and Emily Sands in the Netflix comedy-drama Sex Education (2019–2023). She also voices the Eighth Doctor's companion Bliss in Big Finish's Doctor Who: The Time War audio dramas.
Rakhee Thakrar | |
|---|---|
 Thakrar at The Asian Awards in 2016 | |
| Born | 29 February 1984 Leicester, England |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 2004–present |
| Television | EastEnders Sex Education |
| Spouse |
Vikash Bhai (m. 2017) |
Early life and education
editThakrar was born around 1984, and grew up in the St Matthew's area[2] of Leicester, England. She is of Indian descent,[3] and both parents worked in factories.[2]
She attended Taylor Primary School[2] and Soar Valley College.[3][4] She took drama as a GCSE subject and acted in a play at the Phoenix Theatre. As a teenager, Thakrar became involved with Hathi Productions, a theatre club based in Leicester run by Jez Simons, her drama teacher, who has written for EastEnders.[2]
She was going to study textile design, but decided to take a year out, which led to several roles on the stage as well as learning a lot about the theatre production.[2]
Career
editActing
editIn 2004, Thakrar landed the role of Roopa Chauhan in the radio drama Silver Street, which was broadcast on the BBC Asian Network.[5] Thakrar played the role from the first episode in 2004, to the last episode in 2010. In 2006, Thakrar made her first TV appearance in BBC drama Banglatown Banquet. Thakrar went on to feature in a number of TV series including Doctors, Holby City, Peep Show and, notably, played a lead character in the British-Asian drama Cloud 9.
Thakrar was cast in EastEnders in 2013 and made her first on-screen appearance on 13 January 2014. Her character, Shabnam Masood, had previously been played by Zahra Ahmadi from 2007 to 2008.[6] Thakrar's most famous storyline while portraying Shabnam was when the character gave birth to a stillborn son, with viewers, critics and co-workers praising her performance throughout the storyline. Due to her performance in the storyline, Thakrar has subsequently become an ambassador for the stillbirth charity, Sands. Thakrar left EastEnders in 2015 and was last seen onscreen on 5 February 2016, following Shabnam's failed marriage to Kush Kazemi (Davood Ghadami).[7]
In 2019, she began portraying the role of Emily Sands in the Netflix comedy drama series Sex Education.[8] (2019–2023).[9]
She also voices the Eighth Doctor's companion Bliss in Big Finish's Doctor Who: The Time War audio dramas.[10]
Journalism
editIn 2004, Thakrar was one of 20 young people recruited to the Leicester Mercury's Pathfinder scheme. Run in conjunction with Leicester City Council, it enabled a team of young journalists to spend 10 months gaining an introduction to print journalism and reporting on their communities. During this time, Thakrar wrote articles on subjects such as the influence Bollywood has had on Leicester, as well as the peculiar situation of being born on 29 February.[2]
Filmography
editFilm
edit| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Tourettes Haiku | Sunny | Short film |
| 2007 | Circle | Tina Parekh | |
| 2012 | TYU's Company | GGS Voice | |
| 2016 | Juliet Remembered | Deena | |
| 2018 | Love, Sex and side effects | Rosie | |
| 2019 | Running Naked | Jade | |
| Those Four Walls | Neha | ||
| End-O | Dr. Woman | Short film | |
| 2020 | 23 Walks | Registrar | |
| 2023 | Wonka | Lottie Bell | |
| 2024 | September Says |
Television
edit| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Banglatown Banquet | Rozena | Television film |
| 2007 | Doctors | Safeena Abbasi | Episode: "Losing It All" |
| 2009 | No Signal! | Various | Series 1: Episode 7 |
| 2010 | Doctors | Jasmin Sharma | Episode: "Pound of Flesh" |
| 2010–2011 | Holby City | Sarita Dubashi | 3 episodes |
| 2011 | Page Eight | Muna Hammami | Television film |
| DCI Banks | Lab Assistant | Episode: "Playing with Fire: Part 1" | |
| The Jury | Rashid's Sister | Series 2: Episode 1 | |
| 2012 | Peep Show | Waitress | Episode: "Business Secrets of the Pharaohs" |
| Bollywood Carmen | Tannishta | Television film | |
| 2013 | Cloud 9 | Simran | Regular role; 112 episodes |
| 2014–2016 | EastEnders | Shabnam Masood | Regular role; 165 episodes |
| 2014–2015 | Children in Need | 2 episodes | |
| 2019–2023 | Sex Education | Emily Sands | Regular role; 18 episodes |
| 2019 | Four Weddings and a Funeral | Fatima | Recurring role; 6 episodes |
| 2020 | Criminal: UK | Nasreen Shah | Episode: "Julia" |
| 2021 | The Girl Before | Mia | Miniseries; 4 episodes |
| 2022 | Rules Of The Game | Maya Benshaw | Miniseries; 4 episodes[11] |
| Karen Pirie | Bel Richmond | Miniseries; 3 episodes[12] | |
| 2024 | Finders Keepers[13] | DS Carole Doyle |
Video games
edit| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | Invizimals: The Alliance | Jazmin | |
| 2013–2014 | Invizimals |
Stage
edit| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Astronauts of Hartlepool | Nadia | Vault Festival |
| 2018 | There or Here | Neera | Park Theatre, London[14][15] |
| 2022 | Paradise Now! | Laurie | Bush Theatre, London |
Awards and nominations
edit| Year | Award | Category | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | TV Choice Awards | Best Soap Newcomer | Nominated | [16] |
| 2015 | Inside Soap Awards | Best Actress | Nominated | [17] |
| 2015 | Asian Media Awards | Best TV Character | Won | [18] |
| 2015 | Digital Spy Reader Awards | Best Actor | Third | [19] |
| 2016 | 21st National Television Awards | Serial Drama Performance | Shortlisted | [20] |
| 2016 | 2016 British Soap Awards | Best Actress | Shortlisted | [21] |
References
edit- ^ Raiford, Tiffany (2022-02-19). "10 Things You Didn't Know about Rakhee Thakrar". TVovermind. Retrieved 2024-07-23.
- ^ a b c d e f "From St Matthew's to the Mitchells... Leicester's Rakhee Thakrar is the new face on Eastenders". Leicester Mercury. 17 January 2014. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
...the talented 29-year-old
- ^ a b Hambridge, Karen (2015-10-12). "Soap star is latest to support Rainbows". hinckleytimes. Retrieved 2019-02-27.
- ^ "WN - rakhee thakrar". wn.com. Retrieved 2019-02-27.
- ^ "Drama Queen - Is Rakhee Thakrar the new Parminder Nagra?". Asiana.TV. Archived from the original on 26 March 2015. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
- ^ Drewett, Meg (1 December 2013). "'EastEnders': Shabnam Masood returning to soap, role recast". Digital Spy. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
- ^ "After Shabnam's shock departure, Rakhee Thakrar reveals why she quit EastEnders". What' s on TV. 2016-02-06. Retrieved 2019-02-27.
- ^ "MIss Sands is played by Rakhee Thakrar". PopBuzz. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
- ^ "'Schitt's Creek' star Dan Levy joins the 'Sex Education' cast in Season 4". NPR. Retrieved 2022-08-21.
- ^ "EastEnders star Rakhee Thakrar announced as Doctor Who's new companion... in Paul McGann audio play". Radio Times. Retrieved 2019-02-27.
- ^ "Rules Of The Game". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 3 January 2022.
- ^ "Karen Pirie review – this female-led crime drama absolutely sings". the Guardian. 2022-09-25. Retrieved 2023-01-10.
- ^ "Finders Keepers". radiotimes.com. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
- ^ Wild, Stephi (30 November 2017). "THERE OR HERE Starring Rakhee Thakrar Comes to Park Theatre". BroadwayWorld. Retrieved 5 September 2022.
- ^ "There or Here - Projects". Park Theatre. Retrieved 5 September 2022.
- ^ "TV Choice Awards 2014". EastEnders. BBC. 27 May 2014. Retrieved 10 July 2014.
- ^ Dainty, Sophie (14 July 2015). "Inside Soap Awards 2015 longlist revealed: Who's in line for Best Actor, Actress and Newcomer?". Digital Spy. Retrieved 14 July 2015.
- ^ "Asian Media Awards 2015 winners celebrated at star studded event". Manchester Evening News. 30 October 2015. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
- ^ Kilkelly, Daniel (25 December 2015). "Your Soap Winners of 2015: Emmerdale, EastEnders whodunit and Hollyoaks classroom clinch". Digital Spy. Hearst Magazines UK. Retrieved 25 December 2015.
- ^ "National Television Awards 2016: Winners list - BBC News". BBC News. 20 January 2016. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
- ^ "British Soap Awards 2016 full winners list: Did your favourites take home prizes?". Digital Spy. Archived from the original on 19 December 2019. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
