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Pooja Shah is a Actor British born on 8 august 1979
Pooja Ashwin Shah (born 8 August 1979 in London, England) is a British Asian actress and model of Kenyan-Asian descent. Her grandparents migrated to Kenya from Gujarat in Western India and so her ancestral roots are there.
Shah has trained as an Indian classical dancer. She attended the University of Brighton, graduating in 2001 with a BA Hons Degree in Theatre with Visual Practice.
She began her acting career in the theatre and went on to play the lead role of Mary Magdalene in a small budget film named Jesus the Curry King. The film was produced by the Aylesbury Film Company and was one of the first digital films to be shown in cinemas in the UK.
In 2002 Shah played Meena in the film Bend It Like Beckham and later that year she played one of the lead roles, Sinjata, in the Sky One series Is Harry On The Boat? based on the best selling book and film. The story is about holiday reps in Ibiza and was filmed in Almunecar in Andalusia, Spain.
Other credits include roles in the BBC hospital drama Holby City (2002), and the American series Adventure Inc. (2003).
In 2003 Shah was cast in her most notable role to date. She played Kareena Ferreira in the BBC soap opera EastEnders. The Ferreira family were not well received by critics or viewers and were dismissed as unrealistic by the Asian community in the UK. In 2004 the new executive producer, Kathleen Hutchison, made the decision to axe the entire family in a bid to improve the show, which had suffered from a vast ratings decline. Shah subsequently left the show in 2005.
After leaving EastEnders Shah has appeared in a short film entitled CryBaby, was a celebrity sponsor on the show Strictly Dance Fever and in September 2005 she acted in a feature film called Weekend Lovers.
In 2005 she played the lead role, Sona Virdi, in the play Deranged Marriage, which toured the UK.
In 2006, she took on a lead role in the Britflick Cash and Curry.
In 2007 she played the role of Reshna Dewan in the ITV police drama The Bill. She appeared in the film Cash and Curry, which was released in 2008. The film also stars Ameet Chana, the actor who played her on-screen brother Adi Ferreira in EastEnders.
Shah was a supporting actress in the 2009 and 2010 BBC drama Missing with lead, Pauline Quirke.
Shah starred alongside Brendan Carr in the Modern Life? feature film Ten Dead Men produced by Phil Hobden and directed by Ross Boyask.
In 2010, Shah filmed eight episodes of Coronation Street, playing DC Moore, a police officer investigating an attack on Tracy Barlow. The first episode aired on 3 January 2011. Shah won an award for best actress at the Rob Knox Film Festival for the lead part in the short film No Honour No Choice.
As of 2015, Shah appears in Challenge idents for Wink Bingo.
Source : Wikidata
Pooja Shah
Shah has trained as an Indian classical dancer. She attended the University of Brighton, graduating in 2001 with a BA Hons Degree in Theatre with Visual Practice.
She began her acting career in the theatre and went on to play the lead role of Mary Magdalene in a small budget film named Jesus the Curry King. The film was produced by the Aylesbury Film Company and was one of the first digital films to be shown in cinemas in the UK.
In 2002 Shah played Meena in the film Bend It Like Beckham and later that year she played one of the lead roles, Sinjata, in the Sky One series Is Harry On The Boat? based on the best selling book and film. The story is about holiday reps in Ibiza and was filmed in Almunecar in Andalusia, Spain.
Other credits include roles in the BBC hospital drama Holby City (2002), and the American series Adventure Inc. (2003).
In 2003 Shah was cast in her most notable role to date. She played Kareena Ferreira in the BBC soap opera EastEnders. The Ferreira family were not well received by critics or viewers and were dismissed as unrealistic by the Asian community in the UK. In 2004 the new executive producer, Kathleen Hutchison, made the decision to axe the entire family in a bid to improve the show, which had suffered from a vast ratings decline. Shah subsequently left the show in 2005.
After leaving EastEnders Shah has appeared in a short film entitled CryBaby, was a celebrity sponsor on the show Strictly Dance Fever and in September 2005 she acted in a feature film called Weekend Lovers.
In 2005 she played the lead role, Sona Virdi, in the play Deranged Marriage, which toured the UK.
In 2006, she took on a lead role in the Britflick Cash and Curry.
In 2007 she played the role of Reshna Dewan in the ITV police drama The Bill. She appeared in the film Cash and Curry, which was released in 2008. The film also stars Ameet Chana, the actor who played her on-screen brother Adi Ferreira in EastEnders.
Shah was a supporting actress in the 2009 and 2010 BBC drama Missing with lead, Pauline Quirke.
Shah starred alongside Brendan Carr in the Modern Life? feature film Ten Dead Men produced by Phil Hobden and directed by Ross Boyask.
In 2010, Shah filmed eight episodes of Coronation Street, playing DC Moore, a police officer investigating an attack on Tracy Barlow. The first episode aired on 3 January 2011. Shah won an award for best actress at the Rob Knox Film Festival for the lead part in the short film No Honour No Choice.
As of 2015, Shah appears in Challenge idents for Wink Bingo.
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Filmography of Pooja Shah (3 films)
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Cash and Curry (2008)
, 1h33Origin United-kingdom
Genres Comedy
Actors Pooja Shah, Faria Alam, Sofia Hayat
Roles Gauri
Rating28%
Raj and his friends are tired of being "errand boys" at the bottom of London's criminal food chain. Ambition leads Raj and his friends into the middle of a gang war between two of the biggest drug lords in London: Gabbar and Isaac.
Ten Dead Men (2008)
, 1h30Origin United-kingdom
Genres Thriller, Action
Actors Brendan Carr, Terry Stone, Doug Bradley, Pooja Shah, Ben Shockley, John Campbell-Mac
Roles Amy
Rating34%
As the film begins, Ryan has spent years putting his brutal past behind him—a different man now to the stone cold killer he was a lifetime ago. But when an old face from the past arrives on his doorstep, Ryan is called upon to repay a blood debt from years ago. But the price is too high. Betrayed, and with his life falling apart around him, Ryan goes on a murderous, bloody revenge spree against the Ten Men who took his life away from him.
Bend It Like Beckham (2002)
, 1h52Directed by Gurinder Chadha
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama, Comedy, Comedy-drama, Romantic comedy, Romance
Themes Films about alcoholism, Feminist films, Films about immigration, Sports films, La précarité, Association football films, Political films, Buddy films, Children's films
Actors Parminder Nagra, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Keira Knightley, Archie Panjabi, Anupam Kher, Preeya Kalidas
Roles Meena
Rating66%
Jesminder "Jess" Bhamra is the 18-year-old daughter of Punjabi Sikh Indians from Hounslow in west London. Jess is infatuated with football but her parents have forbidden her to play because she is a girl. She plays in the park sometimes with her good friend Tony, and his buddies, where her skills draw the attention of Juliette "Jules" Paxton, who plays for the women's team of the local club, the fictional Hounslow Harriers. Their coach, Joe, is impressed with her play and puts her on the team. Jess pretends to have a job to play with the team and Jules and Jess become best friends, despite the fact that both are attracted to Joe. Jess enlists her sister Pinky to cover for her when the team travels to Germany for a big match, but everything unravels when Jules spies Joe and Jess almost kiss, causing a breach between them, and Jess's parents find out and forbid her to continue. Meanwhile, Jules's mother wrongly thinks Jules is a lesbian and the girls' spat is a lovers' quarrel. Jess's parents are confronted by a similar accusation before Jess reveals the truth about her attraction to Joe. While the elder Bhamras are distracted by the elaborate preparations for Pinky's upcoming wedding, Jess continues to play and the Hounslow Harriers make their way towards the top of the league. Joe encourages Jess to come clean with her parents and eventually approaches Mr. Bhamra to explain she has a chance to win a prestigious scholarship, but Mr. Bhamra refuses to believe it. Jess and Jules must sort their differences, make peace with their parents, and overcome cultural prejudice to win the league championship, and earn scholarships to Santa Clara University in California.