Parminder Nagra

Parminder Kaur Nagra (born 5 October 1975) is a British actress of Indian Punjabi descent and Sikh heritage. She is known for portraying Jess Bhamra in the film '' Bend It Like Beckham'' (2002) and Dr. Neela Rasgotra in the NBC medical drama series '' ER'' from 2003 to 2009. She has had several other major television roles, including a starring role as Meera Malik in the NBC crime drama series '' The Blacklist'' for season one and a recurring role on the ABC/ Marvel Television series '' Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'' as Ellen Nadeer for season four.

Early life

Nagra was born on 5 October 1975 in Leicester, England, to Sukha and Nashuter Nagra, Sikh factory workers who emigrated from the Punjab region of India in the 1960s. She is the eldest of four children with two brothers and one sister. Nagra attended the Northfield House Primary School in Leicester. At her comprehensive school, Soar Valley College, she played the viola in the youth orchestra and also appeared in her first theatrical productions.

A few months after sitting her A-levels and leaving school, Nagra was approached by Jez Simons, her former drama instructor, about becoming part of the Leicester-based theatre company Haithizi Productions, for which he served as the artistic director. She accepted and was cast as a chorus member in the 1994 musical ''Nimai'' presented at the Haymarket Theatre. Only a week into rehearsals, she was switched from the chorus to replace the lead actress, who had dropped out. Simons recalls that Nagra, a good singer and actress, also had a quality that raised her above other actresses which led him to select her as the new lead, despite the inconvenience of performing with her arm in a cast.

Career

1990s to early 2000s

Nagra left Leicester for London and decided not to go to university. Instead she pursued a theatrical career and her childhood ambition of becoming an actress. Nagra's first London theatrical job came in 1994, when she was cast as the Princess in the pantomime '' Sleeping Beauty'' at the Theatre Royal Stratford East. After ''Sleeping Beauty'', Nagra worked with small Indian theatre companies such as Tara Arts and Tamasha. These roles eventually led to its radio and television appearances that defined her career throughout most of the 1990s. She also appeared in "The 6th Wonder of the World: The Kali Tutti Story", in 1994. In 1996, Nagra took a small part in Chikamatsu Monzaemon's ''Fair Ladies at a Game of Poem Cards'' that was performed at Cottesloe, Royal National Theatre.

Despite lacking formal theatrical training, Nagra signed with Joan Brown, a veteran London-based agent, after which she was cast in minor television roles in the British medical drama series '' Casualty'', and in the television film ''King Girl'', in which she played an abusive member of an all-girl gang. In 1997, Nagra appeared in the three-part drama ''Turning World'' alongside Roshan Seth. The following year, she appeared on ''Casualty'' again. In 1999, she played a convenience store clerk in the television film ''Donovan Quick'', opposite Colin Firth. Also of note were appearances on the British comedy '' Goodness Gracious Me''. Nagra also co-starred in radio plays including, among others, plays by Tanika Gupta. In 1998, Nagra co-starred in the radio play ''Dancing Girls of Lahore'' which was co-written by her future ''Bend It Like Beckham'' co-star Shaheen Khan.

Nagra's other notable stage roles during this period include:

* ''Skeleton'' (1997), with critical acclaim for her "bright-eyed vivacity" as the village girl
* ''A Tainted Dawn'' (1997) where she played a Hindu boy accidentally left in Pakistan and brought up by a Muslim couple
* ''Fourteen Songs, Two Weddings & A Funeral'' (1998) where she showed her skills as a romantic comedian, also to critical acclaim
* ''Krishna's Lila—A Play of the Asian World'' (1999) where she was part of a five-person cast in a controversially titled piece
* ''The Square Circle'' (1999) in the demanding role of an illiterate peasant girl who becomes a rape victim
* ''River on Fire'' (2000), as Kiran, in a retelling of Sophocles' ''Antigone''

In 2001, Nagra voiced a Muslim girl in the docu-drama ''Arena: The Veil'' about women who choose to wear the Muslim head scarf. In 1997, not long after ''Fair Ladies at a Game of Poem Cards'', Nagra was cast in ''Oh Sweet Sita'', an adaptation of Indian mythology about Rama and his wife Sita, in the title role of Sita. During that time, Nagra caught the attention of director Gurinder Chadha.

''Bend It Like Beckham''

Nagra played the lead role in Gurinder Chadha's 2002 comedy-drama '' Bend It Like Beckham'', which became her breakthrough film, alongside Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Anupam Kher, Shaheen Khan, and Keira Knightley, for whom this film also became a career breakthrough. It was directed by Chadha. Nagra played Jesminder "Jess" Bhamra, a teenage Sikh football player who idolises football superstar David Beckham and defies her traditional parents to pursue her dreams of playing football. The small-budget film was a critical and financial success in the United Kingdom, eventually making the leap around the world and to Canada and the United States where it earned over $30 million at the box office. The script was written by Chadha with her husband Paul Mayeda Berges