Balvinder Sopal

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Balvinder Sopal
Born (1979-12-04) 4 December 1979 (age 41)
Chatham, Kent, England[1]
EducationUniversity of Huddersfield[citation needed]
OccupationActress
Years active2001–present
Notable work
EastEnders

Balvinder Sopal (born 4 December 1979)[2] is an English actress. Having previously made appearances in British soap operas including Emmerdale, Coronation Street, Doctors and Hollyoaks, she has portrayed the role of Suki Panesar in the BBC soap opera EastEnders since January 2020.

Career[]

Sopal made her professional acting debut as Bhelua in The Beautiful Violin at Oldham Coliseum Theatre in 2001.[3] She then went on to appear in stage productions such as Absent Friends, Relatively Speaking and The Tales of the Harrow.[4][5] Sopal made her onscreen debut in a 2001 episode of the BBC series Kidhaar! as Reena directed by Kate Rowland.[4] In 2008, she appeared in the BBC film White Girl as Fatima.[5]

From 2009 to 2018, Sopal made numerous appearances in four British soap operas; Emmerdale, Coronation Street, Doctors and Hollyoaks.[6][7] In December 2019, Sopal was cast in her first regular role in the BBC soap opera EastEnders as Suki Panesar.[8] Her first scene aired on 27 January 2020.[8] She was longlisted for Best Villain at the 2020 Inside Soap Awards for her performance,[9] and came second in Digital Spy Reader Awards Best Newcomer category.[10] In 2021, she was longlisted for Best Serial Drama Performance at the 26th National Television Awards.[11]

Filmography[]

Year Title Role Notes
2002 Kidhaar! Reena 1 episode
2005 Anatomy of a Crime Dr Ali Film
2008 White Girl Fatima Television film
2009 Coming Up Sofia Episode: "Adha Cup"
2009, 2014, 2017–2018 Emmerdale Legal Aid Solicitor (2009); DC Graves (2014); DC Khan (2017–2018) 5 episodes
2010 Five Days Detainee's Wife Episode: "Day 8"
2010 Waterloo Road Doctor Series 5, episode 18
2012 Naachle London Laxmi Khan Film
2012 Perfume Mam Short film
2013, 2017 Coronation Street P.C. Marks 4 episodes
2014 Honeycomb Lodge Jas' Girlfriend Film
2018 Call the Midwife Mumtaz Gani 1 episode
2018 Doctors Aafiyah Choudary Episode: "Without and Within"
2018 Hollyoaks Liz 4 episodes
2020–present EastEnders Suki Panesar Series regular

Stage[]

Year Title Role
2001 The Beautiful Violin Bhelua
2004 Absent Friends Evelyn
2006 Relatively Speaking Ginny
2008 Beast Market Various
2008 Mela Mariam
2009 Table Manners Annie
2009 Counted? Various
2010 The House of Bilquis Bibi Zainab
2010 The Tales of the Narrow Road Mukti
2011 Behna Masi Ji
2012–2013 The Snow Queen Snow Queen/Goddess
2013 Our Glass House Sufiya
2014, 2016 Stowaway Salma/Debbie
2014 Home Sweet Home Daadi
2015 The Deranged Marriage Lata
2015 Storm in a Chai Cup Reet
2015 The Edge The Edge
2016 Sleepless Cosima Trevison
2017 Running Wild Mum
2017 Partition Denise
2018 The Thing that Came to Dinner Mrs Caldwell
2018 Delete Sue
2019 Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile Mo
2019 My Beautiful Launderette Bilquis/Moose

References[]

  1. ^ @DominicKingBBC (21 January 2021). "The Conversation" (Tweet). Retrieved 21 January 2021 – via Twitter.
  2. ^ @BalvinderSopal (6 December 2020). "@DuncanLindsay Honestly - I do think people sense kindred spirits. Mine was on the 4th! ☺️ Have a beautiful day. x" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  3. ^ Iain Bloomfield Archived 13 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b "Spotlight: Balvinder Sopal". Spotlight. Archived from the original on 22 December 2019. Retrieved 22 December 2019.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b "Profiling: Balvinder Sopal". Dick and Lottie. Archived from the original on 22 December 2019. Retrieved 22 December 2019.
  6. ^ "EastEnders casts Balvinder Sopal as Suki Panesar". Radio Times. Archived from the original on 22 December 2019. Retrieved 29 December 2019.
  7. ^ Slade, Alison (22 December 2019). "EastEnders announces 'powerful, ruthless and Machiavellian' new character arriving in the New Year". Archived from the original on 22 December 2019. Retrieved 29 December 2019.
  8. ^ Jump up to: a b Edwards, Chris (22 December 2019). "Former Coronation Street star Balvinder Sopal joins EastEnders as the Panesars' mum". Digital Spy. Archived from the original on 25 December 2019. Retrieved 29 December 2019.
  9. ^ "Inside Soap Awards reveals full longlist for 2020's ceremony". Digital Spy. Archived from the original on 29 November 2020. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
  10. ^ Robinson, Abby (25 December 2020). "EastEnders triumphs at Digital Spy Reader Awards 2020". Digital Spy. Archived from the original on 29 December 2020. Retrieved 29 December 2020.
  11. ^ Lovejoy, Hannah (25 May 2021). "Coronation Street, EastEnders, Emmerdale and Hollyoaks stars land National Television Award nominations". Digital Spy. Archived from the original on 31 August 2021. Retrieved 31 August 2021.

External links[]

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