Vekeana Dhillon is a screenwriter, series creator, playwright, television presenter, radio presenter and actress.

Early life and education

She was born in

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House ...

, India and later her family migrated to

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

, Canada. Raised in

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

, Canada and went on to graduate with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

from

Simon Fraser University Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a public research university in British Columbia, Canada, with three campuses, all in Greater Vancouver: Burnaby (main campus), Surrey, and Vancouver. The main Burnaby campus on Burnaby Mountain, located from ...

in British Columbia.

Career

''Uncovidable'' is the latest series Vekeana Dhillon has created and written based on her humorous and semi biographical account of her experiences during the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

lock-down. Season One of 21 episodes in English voiced by Mahira Kakkar released on 23 June 2020 on the Amazon's

Audible Audible may refer to: * Audible (service), an online audiobook store * Audible (American football), a tactic used by quarterbacks * ''Audible'' (film), a short documentary film featuring a deaf high school football player * Audible finish or rush ...

platform worldwide. Upon its success, the Hindi version of the series voiced by

Rasika Dugal Rasika Dugal (born 17 January 1985) is an Indian actress. She is known for her roles in several Indian movies and television shows. She made her screen debut with a small role, in the film '' Anwar'' (2007). And then she went onto star in many ...

released on 24 September 2020 on Audible.in and Audible Suno. Vekeana Dhillon has written the

Virat Kohli Virat Kohli (; born 5 November 1988) is an Indian international cricketer and former captain of the India national cricket team. Widely regarded as one of the greatest batsmen of all time, Kohli plays as a right-handed Batting (cricket), batte ...

animation superhero series '' Super V'' (2019-2020) for

Disney+ The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and interest of an audience or gives pleasure and deligh ...

Hotstar Disney+ Hotstar (also known as Hotstar) is an Indian brand of subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Novi Digital Entertainment of Disney Star and operated by Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution, both di ...

Marvel HQ Super Hungama is an Indian pay television channel owned by Disney Star, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company India. It airs primarily children's animated series and is a direct sister channel to Hungama TV. It was launched as ...

, Star TV Network, and

Baweja Movies Baweja Movies Pvt Ltd, is a company which was formed by Director Harry Baweja along with his wife producer Pammi Baweja. Their early productions are under SP Creations and Baweja Art Productions banner. Its first production was Trinetra ''Tri ...

. It was directed by

Puneet Sira Puneet Sira is a British and Bollywood feature film director and producer who formed The Foundry which is actively developing and producing films. His tenure at BBC Films launched his career as director, writer and producer. Since then, he's be ...

and Season 1 premiered in over 70 countries on 5 November 2019 and went on to become the highest rated show in the animation bracket in India. As a Series Creator she is writing several premium content shows that have secured placements on several major OTT platforms. Vekeana is the creator and writer of ''The Great Punjabi Luv Shuv Story'' (2017) a series for

Ekta Kapoor Ekta Kapoor (born 7 June 1975) is an Indian television producer, film producer and director who works in Hindi cinema and soap opera. She is the joint managing director and creative head of Balaji Telefilms Limited, which was founded in 1994. ...

's digital channel

Alt Balaji ALTBalaji is an Indian subscription based video on demand platform which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Balaji Telefilms Ltd. Launched on 16 April 2017, ALTBalaji is the group's foray into the digital entertainment sphere to create original OT ...

produced by Eyeline Entertainment. Vekeana Dhillon has written the high end musical play '' Balle Balle'' (2017-2018) for Wizcraft International Entertainment, Directed by Viraf Sarkari. She has had five feature films produced and released internationally among them being ''

I - Proud To Be An Indian I, or i, is the ninth letter and the third vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''i'' (pronounced ), plural ...

'' (2004) Produced by

Sohail Khan ) Lambda Velorum (λ Velorum, abbreviated Lambda Vel, λ Vel), officially named Suhail , is a star in the Southern celestial hemisphere, southern constellation of Vela (constellation), Vela. With a mean apparent visual magnitude of 2.21, ...

and Directed by

, ''

Jai Veeru ''Jai Veeru'' is a 2009 Indian Hindi-language action film directed by Puneet Sira, starring Fardeen Khan, Kunal Khemu, Anjana Sukhani, Dia Mirza and Arbaaz Khan. The film was released on 13 March 2009. Plot Veer "Veeru" Sharma is a small-time ...

'' (2009) Produced by Siddi Vinayak Movies, and ''

Kisaan ''Kisaan'' () is a 2009 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film directed by Puneet Sira, starring Sohail Khan, Arbaaz Khan, Jackie Shroff, Dia Mirza and Nauheed Cyrusi. Released on 28 August 2009 to praise for Sohail Khan's performance but cr ...

'' (2009) again Produced by

and Directed by

, and ''

Pinky Moge Wali ''Pinky Moge Wali'' (2012) is a Punjabi film starring Neeru Bajwa, Gavie Chahal, Geeta Zaildar, K S Makhan, Harpal Singh, B.N. Sharma as the prominent characters. Music for the film will be given by Jatinder Shah, Gurmeet Singh & Rohit Composer ...

'' (2012) Directed by

Vikram Dhillon Vikram Dhillon is an Indo-Canadian Feature Film Producer, Director, Actor and a former VJ for Channel V (Star TV India) Biography Career Vikram Dhillon is a Co-Founder of the newly formed Digital Content Studio The Foundry with his partner Pu ...

. Additional feature film scripts include ''Ji Karda'' (Eyeline Entertainment) Director

. The remake of ''

Kurbani ''Qurbanī'' ( ar, قربانى), ''Qurban'', or ''uḍḥiyah'' () as referred to in Islamic law, is a ritual animal sacrifice of a livestock animal during Eid al-Adha. The concept and definition of the word is derived from the Qur'an, the s ...

'' (FK International) and ''Hoshiyar Havaldar'' (Mirchi Movies). Her screenplay ''Foot It'', a family/dance feature film, with

Corus Entertainment Corus Entertainment Inc. is a Canadian mass media company. Formed in 1999 as a spin-off from Shaw Communications, it has prominent holdings in the radio, publishing, and television industries. It is headquartered at Corus Quay in Toronto, Onta ...

/ Rugged Media and a horror feature film for

Telefilm Canada Telefilm Canada is a Crown corporation reporting to Canada's federal government through the Minister of Canadian Heritage. Headquartered in Montreal, Telefilm provides services to the Canadian audiovisual industry with four regional offices in V ...

. Dhillon's association with the entertainment industry was initially as an actor. ''Snip'' (2000) was her first feature film in which she played the tenacious gossip driven Delnaz Readymoney, followed by shorts for MTV in leading roles in ''Love Ke Liye'' and ''One Tight Slap'' which led to ''Bollywood Bound'', a

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; french: Office national du film du Canada (ONF)) is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary f ...

documentary-feature following the lives of Vekeana Dhillon,

Neeru Bajwa Neeru Bajwa (born 26 August 1975) is a Canadian actress, director and producer who has mainly worked in Punjabi and Hindi films. She started her career in 1998 with Dev Anand's Bollywood film '' Main Solah Baras Ki'' and then moved on to work ...

and

Ruby Bhatia Ruby Bhatia (born November 1, 1973) is a Canadian actress, VJ, and television show host. Early life and background Bhatia was born to Canada-based Harbans and Premlata Bhatia. But she was adopted at the age of 3 years by her aunt and uncle, Prem ...

as transplanted Canadians in the world of Bollywood. Vekeana was hired by

Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including ...

's Channel where she became the face and personality of several shows that she hosted including the channel's prime-time slotted '' Dares U'' with co-host Yudi Urs and '' Challenge'' with brother

. Vekeana parlayed her Bollywood experiences as a contributor and reporter for the

BBC Asian Network BBC Asian Network is a British Asian radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station's target audience is people "with an interest in British Asian lifestyles", especially British Asians between the ages of 18 and 34. The station has ...

(U.K.) where she did a two year stint with her own weekly half-hour slot on the ''

Nikki Bedi Nikhila Bedi (; '' née'' Moolgaoker; 9 September 1966) is a British television and radio presenter, born to an Indian father of Maharashtrian origin and an English mother. Married to Kabir Bedi from 1992 to 2005, she retained her married name ...

Show'', in addition to reporting for regional

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

stations in the UK. Vekeana shared her voice and news with the

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is an international broadcasting, international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the Government of the United Kingdom, British Government through the Foreign Secretary, Foreign Secretary's o ...

and BBC General News Service.

Personal life

She is the daughter of Lyricist Harcharan Dhillon and retired Environmental Health Officer Dyal Singh Dhillon. She's worked extensively with her producer/director brother,

, and currently lives in India with her husband, noted director/producer

whom she married in 2010.

Filmography

References

External links