Sanjeev Bhaskar

Sanjeev Bhaskar, OBE (born 31 October 1963) is a British comedian, actor and broadcaster, best known for his work in the BBC Two sketch comedy series Goodness Gracious Me and star of the sitcom The Kumars at No. 42. He also presented and starred in a documentary series called India with Sanjeev Bhaskar in which he travelled to India and visited his ancestral home in today's Pakistan. Bhaskar's more dramatic acting roles include the lead role of Dr Prem Sharma in The Indian Doctor and a main role as DI Sunny Khan in Unforgotten. Bhaskar is currently the Chancellor of the University of Sussex.

In 2003, he was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy. In 2006, Bhaskar was honoured with the Order of the British Empire.

## Early life

Bhaskar was born in Ealing, London, and grew up living above a launderette in Hounslow, Middlesex.

He earned a degree in marketing from Hatfield Polytechnic before landing a job as a marketing executive at IBM.

## Career

Bhaskar soon realised that he preferred comedy to marketing and joined forces with an old college friend, Nitin Sawhney, to start a musical comedy double act called "The Secret Asians" which they first performed in 1996 at the now-defunct Tom Allen Arts Centre in East London. This performance was featured on a BBC magazine show called Reportage. They performed extensively also at the Watermans Arts Centre with numerous other acts at a regular Asian comedy night called "One Nation Under a Groove...Innit". Their real break came when they were performing a show at the Oval House venue in South London where, after a strong review in Time Out magazine by journalist and playwright Bonnie Greer, they were approached by Anil Gupta, the producer of what was to become the BBC sketch series Goodness Gracious Me.

Bhaskar has starred in a number of British-produced films including The Guru and Anita and Me. He also had a cameo as a shop owner in Yash Raj Films' production Jhoom Barabar Jhoom.

Bhaskar, the Kumars and Gareth Gates collectively released the official single for Comic Relief in 2003, which spent three weeks at the top of the UK Singles chart and was the second highest selling single of the year.

He appeared as a guest on the BBC’s Top Gear in 2003, setting a time of 1:51.0 around a wet Top Gear test track in a Suzuki Liana, placing him 32nd on the original leader board.

In 2005 Bhaskar was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the New Year Honours List.

As part of the BBC’s series of programmes on the 60th anniversary of the independence of India and Pakistan, he filmed a BBC documentary series India with Sanjeev Bhaskar with director Deep Sehgal which was broadcast to coincide with the 60th anniversary of Indian Independence in August 2007. According to the BBC it included "an emotional journey" to his father’s ancestral home which is now in Pakistan.

His first book India with Sanjeev Bhaskar based on the documentary series became a Sunday Times bestseller in 2007.

In 2008 he made his musical theatre debut as King Arthur in Spamalot at London's Palace Theatre.

In October 2008 he was featured on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs.

He wrote and starred in the ITV sitcom Mumbai Calling and the UK tour of the hit American improv show Totally Looped.

On 23 February 2009 Sanjeev was appointed as the University of Sussex's new Chancellor. He was formally installed at the university's summer graduation ceremony on 22 July 2009. On 26 July 2019 Sanjeev was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University in recognition of his 10 years in post as Chancellor.

In March 2010 Sanjeev featured on the BBC Radio 4 comedy show I've Never Seen Star Wars.

On 23 July 2010 he was guest on the BBC comedy panel game Would I Lie To You?

He also featured in a Channel 4 documentary series called The House That Made Me. This show, produced by Nutopia in 2010, recreated his childhood home and introduced him to the characters of his youth.

On 31 October 2014 Bhaskar hosted Kermode and Mayo's Film Review, standing in for Simon Mayo on the BBC's flagship film show. He also played the lead character in the online animation Rajesh Finesse in 2014.

In April 2015 he was given the Outstanding Achievement in Television award at The Asian Awards.

## Personal life

In January 2005, Bhaskar married comedian Meera Syal in a ceremony which took place in Lichfield, Staffordshire. They have a son, Shaan, who was born at the Portland Hospital on 2 December 2005.

In February 2009, Bhaskar and other entertainers wrote an open letter to The Times protesting against the trial of Bahá'í leaders then being held in Iran.

Before the 2010 general election, Bhaskar was one of 48 celebrities who signed a letter warning against Conservative Party policy towards the BBC.

## Filmography

### Films

* The Dance of Shiva (1998)
* Notting Hill (1999)
* The Mystic Masseur (2001)
* The Guru (2002)
* Inferno (2002)
* Anita & Me (2002)
* L'entente cordiale (2006)
* Scoop (2006)
* Jhoom Barbara Jhoom (2007)
* It's a Wonderful Afterlife (2010)
* Not the Messiah: He's a Very Naughty Boy (2010)
* Jackboots on Whitehall (2010)
* London Boulevard (2010)
* The Itch of the Golden Not (2011)
* Arthur Christmas (2011)
* Lazy Uncle (2011)
* The Zero Theorem (2013)
* Absolutely Anything (2015)
* Paddington 2 (2017)
* Yesterday (2019)

### Television

* The Real McCoy (1991)
* Porkpie (1995)
* Captain Butler (1997)
* We Know Where You Live (1997)
* Keeping Mum (1998)
* Goodness Gracious Me (1998-2015)
* Jonathan Creek (1998)
* Small Potatoes (1999-2001)
* The Way It Is (2000; Movie)
* We Know Where You Live (2001; Movie)
* The Kumars at No. 42 (2001-2006)
* Dick Whittington (2002; Movie)
* Dalziel and Pascoe (2002)
* Omnibus (2002)
* Children in Need (2003)
* Angell's Hell (2005; Movie)
* Life Isn't All Ha Ha Hee Hee (2005)
* Chopratown (2005; Movie)
* The Children's Party at the Palace (2006; Special)
* Mumbai Calling (2007-2008)
* Love Soup (2008)
* Grandpa in My Pocket (2010)
* Little Crackers (2010-2011)
* The Indian Doctor (2010-2013)
* Just Around the Corner (2012; Movie)
* Silent Witness (2012)
* Outnumbered (2012)
* Inspector Lewis (2013)
* Midsomer Murders (2014)
* The Kumar's (2014)
* Doctor Who (2014)
* Drunk History: UK (2015)
* Unforgotten (2015-2018)
* Indian Summers (2015)
* Horrible Histories (2015)
* BBC Comedy Feeds (2016)
* Thunderbirds Are Go (2016)
* Election Spy (2017)
* Porters (2017)
* Thomas & Friends (2018-present)