Rakhee Thakrar (born c. 1984) 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
Bornc. 1984
Leicester, England
OccupationActress
Years active2004–present
TelevisionEastEnders
Sex Education
Spouse
Vikash Bhai
(m. 2017)

Early life and education edit

Thakrar was born around 1984, and grew up in the St Matthew's area[1] of Leicester, England. She is of Indian descent,[2] and both parents worked in factories.[1]

She attended Taylor Primary School[1] and Soar Valley College.[2][3] 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.[1]

She was going to study textile design at art school, 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.[1]

Career edit

Acting edit

In 2004, Thakrar landed the role of Roopa Chauhan in the radio drama Silver Street, which was broadcast on the BBC Asian Network.[4] 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.[5] 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).[6]

In 2019, she began portraying the role of Emily Sands in the Netflix comedy drama series Sex Education.[7] (2019–2023).[8]

She also voices the Eighth Doctor's companion Bliss in Big Finish's Doctor Who: The Time War audio dramas.[9]

Journalism edit

In 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.[1]

Filmography edit

Film 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

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[10]
Karen Pirie Bel Richmond Miniseries; 3 episodes[11]
2024 Finders Keepers[12] 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[13][14]
2022 Paradise Now! Laurie Bush Theatre, London

Awards and nominations edit

Year Award Category Result Ref.
2014 TV Choice Awards Best Soap Newcomer Nominated [15]
2015 Inside Soap Awards Best Actress Nominated [16]
2015 Asian Media Awards Best TV Character Won [17]
2015 Digital Spy Reader Awards Best Actor Third [18]
2016 21st National Television Awards Serial Drama Performance Shortlisted [19]
2016 2016 British Soap Awards Best Actress Shortlisted [20]

References edit

  1. ^ 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
  2. ^ a b Hambridge, Karen (2015-10-12). "Soap star is latest to support Rainbows". hinckleytimes. Retrieved 2019-02-27.
  3. ^ "WN - rakhee thakrar". wn.com. Retrieved 2019-02-27.
  4. ^ "Drama Queen - Is Rakhee Thakrar the new Parminder Nagra?". Asiana.TV. Archived from the original on 26 March 2015. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
  5. ^ Drewett, Meg (1 December 2013). "'EastEnders': Shabnam Masood returning to soap, role recast". Digital Spy. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
  6. ^ "After Shabnam's shock departure, Rakhee Thakrar reveals why she quit EastEnders". What' s on TV. 2016-02-06. Retrieved 2019-02-27.
  7. ^ "MIss Sands is played by Rakhee Thakrar". PopBuzz. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
  8. ^ "'Schitt's Creek' star Dan Levy joins the 'Sex Education' cast in Season 4". NPR. Retrieved 2022-08-21.
  9. ^ "EastEnders star Rakhee Thakrar announced as Doctor Who's new companion... in Paul McGann audio play". Radio Times. Retrieved 2019-02-27.
  10. ^ "Rules Of The Game". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 3 January 2022.
  11. ^ "Karen Pirie review – this female-led crime drama absolutely sings". the Guardian. 2022-09-25. Retrieved 2023-01-10.
  12. ^ "Finders Keepers". radiotimes.com. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
  13. ^ Wild, Stephi (30 November 2017). "THERE OR HERE Starring Rakhee Thakrar Comes to Park Theatre". BroadwayWorld. Retrieved 5 September 2022.
  14. ^ "There or Here - Projects". Park Theatre. Retrieved 5 September 2022.
  15. ^ "TV Choice Awards 2014". EastEnders. BBC. 27 May 2014. Retrieved 10 July 2014.
  16. ^ 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.
  17. ^ "Asian Media Awards 2015 winners celebrated at star studded event". Manchester Evening News. 30 October 2015. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
  18. ^ 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.
  19. ^ "National Television Awards 2016: Winners list - BBC News". BBC News. 20 January 2016. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
  20. ^ "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.

External links edit