Manjinder Virk is a British actress, director and writer. She has appeared in the television series '' Holby City'' (1999), ''

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'' (2000), ''

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'' (2004), ''

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'' (2005), '' Runaway'' (2009), '' Skins'' (2010), '' Monroe'' (2011), '' Hunted'' (2012) and ''

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'' (2016 –2018). She has also written and directed the short films ''Forgive'' (2008) and ''Out of Darkness'' (2013), the latter of which she won Best of Fest award at the

Aesthetica Short Film Festival The Aesthetica Short Film Festival (ASFF) is an international film festival which takes place annually in York, England, at the beginning of November. Founded in 2011, it is a celebration of independent film from around the world, and an outle ...

Early life

Virk was born in

Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its ...

, England. Her mother's name is Jasvir. She comes from a family of three children. She began acting at the Belgrade Youth Theatre in Coventry and went on to become artistic director of Pangram Dance Theatre with her brother, Hardish. She went on to earn a degree in contemporary dance at

De Montfort University De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) is a public university in the city of Leicester, England. It was established in accordance with the Further and Higher Education Act in 1992 as a degree awarding body. The name De Montfort University was tak ...

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city l ...

Career

In 1999, Virk started off on the British TV series '' Holby City'', which was just the beginning of her television career. She later appeared in three separate episodes of the TV soap opera ''

'', first in 2000 as Karen Slater, again in 2004 as Laila Khalid and in 2007 playing Harpit Jindal. She played Nasima Wahid in 2007's ''

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'' and portrayed Lorraine Dunbar in the 2010 documentary '' The Arbor''. For the latter, she earned three nominations: Best Newcomer at the BFI London Film Festival Awards and Best Actress and Newcomer at the BIFA Awards. She also had a small recurring role on the British medical drama show '' Monroe'', recently appeared on the new

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...

show '' Hunted'' and has a recurring role on ''

.'' In 2003, she wrote a play for a show for touring company Theatre Centre titled ''Glow''. In 2008, Virk wrote and directed the short film ''Forgive'' starring

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and Abdi Gouhad. In 2012, she wrote and directed another short called ''Out of Darkness'' starring

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Monica Dolan Monica Margaret Dolan (born 15 March 1969) is an English actress. She won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Supporting Actress for playing Rosemary West in '' Appropriate Adult'' (2011). Career Dolan was born in Middlesbrough and trained at the Gu ...

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and

Riz Ahmed Rizwan Ahmed (; ; born ) is a British actor and rapper. As an actor, he has won an Emmy Award and has received nominations for a Golden Globe and three British Independent Film Awards, and as a rapper he has won an Academy Award for the short ...

. In 2022 she appeared as DI Samira Desai in the thriller series

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alongside

Vicky McClure Victoria Lee McClure (born 8 May 1983) is an English actress, model and presenter. She is known for her roles as Detective Inspector Kate Fleming in the BBC series ''Line of Duty'' (2012–present) and Lol Jenkins in Shane Meadows' film ''Thi ...

Personal life

She met husband

Neil Biswas Neil Biswas (born 1971) is a British screenwriter, playwright and director best known for his non-fictional TV drama ''Bradford Riots'', which he wrote and directed. ''Bradford Riots'', a film that tells the story of 2001 riots from the perspectiv ...

on the set of the TV drama ''

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'' in 2007. As of 2013, she and her husband live in

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, South London.

Filmography

Awards and nominations

Virk was nominated in 2010 for Best Newcomer at the BFI London Film Festival Awards and

Best Actress Best Actress is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organisations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actresses in a film, television series, television film or play. The first Best Actress aw ...

and Newcomer at the BIFA Awards, both for her role in '' The Arbor''. She was one of the UK Stars of Tomorrow in Screen International in 2007. She was also nominated for Asian Woman of Achievement Award in 2008. In 2013, for her short film ''Out of Darkness'', Virk won Best of Fest award at the

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Virk, Manjinder Living people Alumni of De Montfort University English people of Indian descent English Sikhs English television actresses English film actresses British actresses of Indian descent Year of birth missing (living people)