Pooja Shah

Pooja Shah aka Pooja Ashwin Shah has her roots in Gujarat, India. But since her grandparents had migrated to Kenya, this British model-cum-actress is of Kenyan-Asian descent. She was born on 8th August 1979 in London, England.

Although she had migrated to London, the actress trained as an Indian classical dancer. After her school’s curriculum, she enrolled herself in the University of Brighton and completed her graduation in 2001 with a BA Hons Degree in Theatre with Visual Practice.

This degree enabled her to evolve as an actress. Her first break in acting was in a theatre group, and later on, she went to play the lead role in the movie ‘Jesus the Curry King’ which was produced under the banner Aylesbury Film Company and was one of the first digital films to be shown in cinemas in the UK.

It was a small budget movie, and in this movie, she played the role of Mary Magdalene. In the year 2002, she bagged a small role in Gurinder Chadha's movie 'Bend It Like Beckham,' based on the life of football player David Beckham.

In this movie, Pooja played the role of Meena. In the year 2003, Pooja Shah played the role of Sinjata Kapoor in TV film 'Is Harry on the Boat?' which was aired on Sky One Channel from 2002 to 2003. Pooja Shah has also appeared in other TV series, BBC’s Holby City (2002), a hospital drama and the American TV series Adventure Inc. (2003).

She also was associated with another BBC soap opera ‘EastEnders.’ In this project, she played the role of Kareen Fereira but people did not like the inclusion of Fereira family in the soap opera, and she had to opt out. She left the show in 2005 as the new producer, Kathleen Hutchison wanted to kill the entire Fereira family from the show because of the decline in the TRP’s. But in this show, Pooja had given her best performance to date.

After leaving BBC’s soap opera ‘EastEnders,’ she acted in a short film titled ‘Cry Baby.’ Later, she worked in a feature film called ‘Weekend Lovers’, which was directed by Chaitan Kit Shah, and Kiran Shah Kiran Shah is a known actor and stunt double of In >> Read More... . In this movie, she had a minor role.

In 2005, she acted in a play titled 'Deranged Marriage, which toured the UK. In this play, she played the role of Sona Virdi. In the year 2008, she got to play the lead role in the British comedy movie 'Cash and Curry' as Gauri.

It was directed by Sarjit Bains and Christine Edwards, and Manish Patel wrote the script. The shooting took place in December 2006 in Harrow, Barnet, and Wembley. The film released on DVD in the UK and by four Digital Media on July 19, 2010.

The movie also entered Mumbai Film Festival, Portobello Film Festival and Tongues on Fire Film Festival. She was also the supporting actress for UK TV series 'Missing' which was a British Daytime television crime drama starring Pauline Quirke and Mark Wingett.

Pooja Shah and Felix Scott were the supporting actors in the TV series. The show was aired on BBC-One from March 2009 – March 2010. She also appeared in 'Ten Dead Men' crafted by a British film production company named 'Modern Life?' In this movie, she appeared alongside actor Brendan Carr, produced by Phil Hobden and directed by Ross Boyask.

She even won an award for Best Actress at the Rob Knox Film Festival for her role in the short film 'No Honour No Choice.' Earlier, in 2010, she appeared in eight episodes of TV series ‘Coronation Street,’ playing an investigative officer.