Sonal Bhadresh Shah (born 1986) is an American

actress An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), lit ...

and

voice artist Voice acting is the art of performing voice-overs to present a character or provide information to an audience. Performers are called voice actors/actresses, voice artists, dubbing artists, voice talent, voice-over artists, or voice-over talent ...

who is best known for playing Dr. Sonja "Sunny" Dey on TV's '' Scrubs''.

Early life and education

Shah was born and raised in

Wheaton, Illinois Wheaton is a suburban city in Milton and Winfield Townships and is the county seat of DuPage County, Illinois. It is located approximately west of Chicago. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 52,894, which was estimated ...

. Her parents, Bhadresh and Mrudula Shah, are

Gujarati Jains Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religion. Jainism traces its spiritual ideas and history through the succession of twenty-four tirthankaras (supreme preachers of ''Dharma''), with the first in the current time cycle being ...

who moved from

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the secon ...

, Maharashtra,

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

in 1970. Shah graduated from Wheaton Warrenville South High School. She was named the 1998

DuPage County DuPage County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of Illinois, and one of the collar counties of the Chicago metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, the population was 932,877, making it Illinois' second-most populous county. Its county seat is ...

Fair Queen in July 1998. Shah graduated cum laude from Loyola University in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

with a major in theatre, minors in

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...

biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditar ...

and chemistry, and a concentration in pre-medicine. While a student at Loyola, Shah joined the

Alpha Sigma Alpha Alpha Sigma Alpha () is a United States National Panhellenic Fraternities and sororities in North America, sorority founded on November 15, 1901, at the Virginia State Female Normal School (later known as Longwood College and now known as Longwood U ...

sorority. "I sincerely planned to go to medical school," Shah told a Wheaton, Illinois newspaper in March 2009. "I love studying science, but I realized that my passion for performing outweighed my passion for wanting to be a doctor." After graduation, Shah became a staple in the Chicago Theatre Community and performed with The Tony Award Winning Goodman Theatre among others. She is a founding member of Rasaka Theatre Company, which explores South Asian plays and playwrights, and supplemented her acting education at The Moscow Art Theatre School at Harvard University.

Acting career

Shah moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

in 2006 and began appearing in commercials and sketch comedy. She also has acted with Second City theatres in Chicago and Los Angeles. In 2009, Shah began appearing on '' Scrubs'' as Dr. Sonja "Sunny" Dey, who is one of the young interns newly cast in the show's eighth season. In addition, Shah appeared in the show's

webisode A webisode (portmanteau of "web" and "episode") is an episode of a series that is distributed as part of a web series or on streaming television. It is available as either for download or in streaming, as opposed to first airing on broadcast or c ...

series '' Scrubs: Interns''. Shah returns as a guest star on the ninth season of ''Scrubs'', in the fifth episode. Shah also has a role in the 2009 teen comedy film '' Ratko: The Dictator's Son'', a National Lampoon production.

Selected filmography

External links

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shah, Sonal 21st-century American comedians American stand-up comedians American women comedians American comedians of Indian descent American film actresses American television actresses American actresses of Indian descent Actors from Wheaton, Illinois Actresses from Illinois American people of Gujarati descent Comedians from Illinois Gujarati people Living people 1986 births 21st-century American actresses