Sanjeev Bhaskar | |||
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Bhaskar in 2015
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Born |
Ealing, London, England |
31 October 1963 ||
Medium | Comedian, actor, broadcaster | ||
Years active | 1991–present | ||
Spouse | Meera Syal | ||
Notable works and roles | See below | ||
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Sanjeev Bhaskar, OBE (born 31 October 1963) is a British comedian, actor and broadcaster, best known for his work in the BBC Two comedy series Goodness Gracious Me and as host of The Kumars at No. 42. He also presented and starred in a documentary series called India with Sanjeev Bhaskar in which he travelled to India and visited his ancestral home in today's Pakistan. Bhaskar's acting roles include the lead role of Dr. Prem Sharma in The Indian Doctor and a main role as DI Sunny Khan in Unforgotten.
In 2003, he was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy.
Bhaskar was born in Ealing, London, and grew up living above a launderette in Hounslow, west London. He earned a degree in marketing from Hatfield Polytechnic before landing a job as a marketing executive at IBM. He soon realised that he preferred comedy to marketing and joined forces with an old college friend, Nitin Sawhney, to start a musical comedy double act called "The Secret Indians (non-Asian)" which they first performed in 1996 at the now-defunct Tom Allen Arts Centre in East London. This performance was featured on a BBC magazine show called Reportage. They performed extensively also at the Watermans Arts Centre with numerous other acts at a regular Asian comedy night called "One Nation Under a Groove...Innit". Their real break came when they were performing a show at the Oval House venue in South London where, after a strong review in Time Out magazine by journalist and playwright Bonnie Greer, they were approached by Anil Gupta, the producer of what was to become the BBC sketch series Goodness Gracious Me.