Shobna Gulati

Shobna Gulati
Shobna Gulati in 2012
Born	(1966-08-07) 7 August 1966 (age 50) Oldham, Lancashire, England, UK
Occupation	Actress, presenter
Years active	1998-present
Employer	BBC (1998–2000) ITV (2001–14)
Known for	Anita in Dinnerladies Sunita Alahan in Coronation Street
Spouse(s)	Anshu Srivastava (1990–94)
Children	1

Shobna Gulati (born 7 August 1966) is a British actress, writer, and dancer. Gulati is a soap star best known for playing Anita in Victoria Wood's Dinnerladies and Sunita Alahan in the long-running soap opera Coronation Street from 2001 to 2006, a role to which she returned at the end of 2009 and departed again in 2013. From 13 March 2013 to 30 May 2014, Gulati appeared as a panellist on the lunchtime chatshow Loose Women.

Gulati is also one of very few actors to have appeared in both Coronation Street and its rival series EastEnders (in 2000).

Gulati was born in Oldham, Lancashire to parents of Hindu Indian descent. She has a degree in Arabic and Middle Eastern politics from the University of Manchester.

One of Gulati's earliest appearances was as a dancer in the video for Boy George's 1991 single "Bow Down Mister." In the late 1990s, she received excellent reviews for her work in Victoria Wood's BBC sitcom Dinnerladies as a main character, this finished in 2000 after two years and she appeared in both series. She appeared as Ameena Badawi from October to December 2000, in EastEnders she is one of few to have appeared in both rival-soaps EastEnders and Coronation Street, also Gulati appeared in the crossover between both soap's (East Street) in 2010 as her main character, Sunita. In 2001, she appeared in the short film Shadowscan, directed by Tinge Krishnan, which won a Bafta Award; and, in 2004, Gulati was nominated for a Manchester Evening News theatre award for her work in the play Dancing Within Walls, which was staged at the Contact Theatre in Manchester.