Tanika Gupta

Tanika Gupta
MBE
Native name হাসিনা মমতাজ
Born (1963-12-01) 1 December 1963
Chiswick, Hounslow, London, England
Residence Kentish Town, London, England
Nationality British
Ethnicity Bengali
Education Modern History
Alma mater Oxford University
Occupation Playwright, screenwriter
Years active 1998–present
Known for Theatre, television
Style Drama, radio drama, screenplay
Religion Hindu
Spouse(s) David Archer (m. 1988)
Children 3
Parent(s) Tapan Gupta (father)
Gairika Gupta (mother)
Relatives Pritish Gupta
(paternal grandfather)
Dinesh Chandra Gupta
(maternal great uncle)
Website www.tanikagupta.com

Tanika Gupta, MBE (born 1 December 1963) is an English playwright of Bengali descent. Apart from her work for the theatre, she has also written scripts for television and radio plays.

Early life

As a child, Gupta performed Tagore dance dramas with her parents. Her mother Gairika Gupta was an Indian classically trained dancer, and her father Tapan Gupta was a singer. She is also related to the Indian revolutionary Dinesh Gupta, whose brother was Tanika's grandfather.[1]

After attending Mill Hill School[2] in London, Gupta graduated from Oxford University with a Modern History degree. After Oxford, her political commitment found expression in her work for an Asian women's refuge in Manchester. In 1988, she married David Archer an anti-poverty activist and ActionAid’s current Head of Programme Development, whom she met at university. She and her husband then moved to London where Gupta was a community worker in Islington, writing in her spare time.[1]

Career

The Waiting Room (2000) was a career highpoint, enjoyed by blue-rinses as well as by Asian audiences. Gupta is rumoured to be writing a new play for Birmingham Repertory Theatre's Youth Theatre, The Young REP, to be performed in June 2009. She is currently writing a play for the Young Rep, for a group called Plays and New Writing.[3] In 2013, her play The Empress, about Abdul Karim and Queen Victoria opened in Stratford upon Avon.

For the BBC's Grange Hill series, Gupta wrote seven episodes between 1997 and 2000.

Awards and recognition

In 2008, Gupta was appointed a Member of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2008 New Year Honours for her services to drama.[1][4]

Awards

Personal life

Gupta and her husband have three daughters, Nandini (born 1991), Niharika (born 1993) and Malini (born 2000).[1]

Filmography

Year Title Notes Credit
1995 Flight TV film Writer
Bideshi Short
Siren Spirits 1 episode: "Bideshi"
1999 The Fiancée Short
2000 EastEnders 1 episode: "17 January 2000"
1997–2000 Grange Hill 7 episodes: "20:19", "20:20", "21:15", "22.9", "22:10", "23:5", "23:6"
2001 Crossroads Unknown episodes
The Bill 1 episode: "Complicity (Part 2)"
2002 The Lives of Animals TV film Screenplay
2006 Banglatown Banquet
2010 Non-Resident Short Writer

Plays

Year Title
1995 Voices on the Wind
1997 Skeleton
2000 The Waiting Room
2002 Sanctuary
Inside Out
2003 Hobson's Choice
Fragile Land
2004 The Country Wife
2006 Gladiator Games
Catch
Sugar Mummies
2008 Meet The Mukherjees
White Boy

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Roy, Amit (15 July 2008). "Hanged Bengali icon's great-niece bags MBE". The Telegraph. Retrieved 1 May 2012.
  2. ↑ Roberts, Alison (7 August 2007). "London's teenage crisis". London: London Evening Standard. Retrieved 20 February 2015.
  3. ↑ "Tanika Gupta". British Council Literature. Retrieved 1 May 2012.
  4. ↑ The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 58729. p. 17. 14 June 2008.

External links


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