Sadda Mangala Sooriyabandara

Saddha Mangala Sooriyabandara is a Sri Lankan journalist, scriptwriter, television presenter, producer, and media personality. He was born on June 19, 1968. His place of birth is the village of Watapuluwa, about five km from Kandy, Sri Lanka. He finished his primary studies at Watapuluwa Junior School, and later, he achieved the Grade Five Scholarship Examination in 1979. He then completed his secondary education at St. Anthony’s College, Kandy in 1980. During his school days, he participated in various drama activities. He excelled in stage drama production & acting, singing, oratory & debate, art, and writing. He is an athlete and has also represented his school at the national level in the hundred & ten-meter hurdles. Saddha Mangala Sooriyabandara’s father Lionel Sooriyabandara was a sitarist & a music teacher who holds a degree in music from Heywood Institute of Arts.

His mother's name is Sulochana Gamage, and he was a music student at the same college as his father. He grew up in the art environment at home. He was inspired by his father to do art. He has an elder brother named Chandana, who is a senior journalist & the executive officer of Sirasa TV and became the channel head in 2015. In 2018, Chandana joined as the head of Sirasa Stein Studios. He also has a younger sister named Apsara and a younger brother named Chathura. He married Warnakulasuriya Patambandige Chethani Wijetunga, whom he met at the Alcohol and Drug Information Center (ADIC) during work. She has worked as a journalist for "Iskra," as a news reporter at Lakhanda radio, and as a television presenter on Rupavahini. Also, he started with her wife's television production house "Fingerprint Media Solutions," with the motive of creating commercial productions & television commercials.

He has a son named Induwara, who is a musician. Saddha Mangala Sooriyabandara joined as a trainee nursing officer at the Katugastota Hospital and later went to Kandy Nursing College for nursing training. Before finishing his training, he left the Nursing School. He then joined ADIC, an NGO-NORAD-sponsored NGO that works for drug prevention in Sri Lanka. He was later appointed as the permanent member of ADIC. At a young age, he became project director of LIFE – Drug Prevention Movement in Kandy when he founded it as a project of ADIC. In 1993, he quit ADIC and became a sales executive at EL-Club, a garment factory. Meanwhile, he took a diploma in Journalism at the University of Colombo & the University of Sri Jayewardenepura. In 1994, he featured as a freelance television presenter for one of the privately owned television channels in Sri Lanka, TNL TV. He then worked as a news anchor for the first news broadcast on a private television channel.

On February 15, 1995, he got a job as a news coordinator and was recruited to the permanent staff of TNL. In 1996, he covered the LTTE bombing in front of the Army Headquarters in Colombo and also covered LTTE suicide attacks in Sri Lanka. He co-founded with his wife an "Institute of Media and Performing Arts" (IMPAS). He also worked as a course director at the IMPAS. In 2001, he wrote his debut maiden teledrama script, "Amara Bhawana.” In 2012, he rose to fame as a screenwriter by creating of his television series “Kalu Araliya.”

In 2016, he became a producer with the teledrama “Kalu Kurulla,” aired on ITN. The same year, he initiated a production company, “Maathra Productions” with his production partner Chamara Samarawickrema. He won the Sumathi Award for Best Television Current Affairs Program for Angili Salakuna (2003). He also won the Sumathi Award for Best Television Sports Program for “Gem Medde Keli Sellam" in 2014. He was honored with Best Documentary Programme and Jury Award for his work in “Uththamachara" in 2006. He received a Special Jury Award at Raigam Tele’es for the "Harakotiya Theme song" in 2019. In 2021, he earned the merit award at the Sumathi Awards for the script of “Amuthu Rasikaya.”