Tanika Gupta (born 1 December 1963) is a British playwright. Apart from her work for the theatre, she has also written scripts for television, film and

radio play Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine t ...

Early life

Tanika Gupta was born in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

to immigrant parents from

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

, India where her family had their origins. As a child, Gupta performed

Tagore Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resha ...

dance dramas with her parents. Her mother Gairika Gupta was an Indian classically trained dancer, and her father Tapan Gupta was a singer. The Indian revolutionary

Dinesh Gupta Dinesh Chandra Gupta ( bn, দিনেশ চন্দ্র গুপ্ত ''Dinesh Chôndro Gupto'') or Dinesh Gupta (6 December 1911 – 7 July 1931) was an Indian revolutionary against British rule in India, who is noted for launching an ...

was her great uncle. After attending Copthall Comprehensive School in London and then

Mill Hill School Mill Hill School is a 13–18 mixed independent, day and boarding school in Mill Hill, London, England that was established in 1807. It is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. History A committee of Nonconformist ...

for her A levels, Gupta graduated from

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...

with a Modern History degree. After Oxford, her political commitment found expression in her work for an Asian women's refuge in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

. In 1988, she married David Archer an anti-poverty activist and ActionAid's current Head of Tax Justice and Public Services, whom she met at university. She and her husband then moved to London where Gupta was initially a community worker in Islington, writing in her spare time.

Career

Over the past 25 years Tanika has written over 25 stage plays that have been produced in major theatres across the UK. She has also written 30 radio plays for the BBC and several original television dramas, as well as scripts for EastEnders,

Grange Hill ''Grange Hill'' is a British children's television drama series, originally produced by the BBC and portraying life in a typical comprehensive school. The show began its run on 8 February 1978 on BBC1, and was one of the longest-running progra ...

and

The Bill ''The Bill'' is a British police procedural television series, first broadcast on ITV from 16 August 1983 until 31 August 2010. The programme originated from a one-off drama, '' Woodentop'', broadcast in August 1983. The programme focused o ...

. ''The Waiting Room'' (produced for the National Theatre in 2000) was an early career highpoint with Indian film star

Shabana Azmi Shabana Azmi (born 18 September 1950) is an Indian actress of Hindi film, television and theatre. One of India's most acclaimed actresses, Azmi is known for her portrayals of distinctive, often unconventional female characters across several ge ...

performing on the stage in London for the first time. Gupta's 2013 play The Empress, about Abdul Karim and

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...

opened in Stratford upon Avon and is now on the GCSE curriculum along with her adaptation of Ibsen's

A Doll's House ''A Doll's House'' ( Danish and nb, Et dukkehjem; also translated as ''A Doll House'') is a three-act play written by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. It premiered at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 21 December 1879, having be ...

which was first performed at Hammersmith Lyric in 2018. Writing in

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

, Dominic Cavendish praised ''The Empress'' ''“This fascinating new theatre production has got ‘make this into a movie’ written all over it.”'' Her play ''Lions and Tigers'' performed at the Sam Wannamaker in Shakespeare's Globe Theatre tells the remarkable story set in the 1930s of her great uncle,

, an Indian freedom fighter. ''Lions and Tigers'' is now published in Methuen's series of Modern Classics. Praise for ''Lions and Tigers'' singled out the ''" intimate storytelling, where Gupta's writing is at its most playful and potent"'' for particular note. Other notable plays include ''Sugar Mummies'' (Royal Court Theatre 2006); ''Gladiator Games'' (Sheffield Crucible Theatre 2006); ''Hobson's Choice'' (Young Vic 2001 and Manchester Royal Exchange 2018). Her most recent productions are ''Mirror on the Moor'' (Royal Court Living Newspaper, April 2021) and ''The Overseas Student'' (Hammersmith Lyric, June 2021).

Personal life

Gupta and her husband have two daughters, Nandini (born 1991), Niharika (born 1993) and a son Malini (born 2000).

Works

Theatre plays

Radio plays

Filmography

Awards and recognition

In 2008, Gupta was appointed a

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(MBE) in the 2008 New Year Honours for her services to drama. In June 2016 she was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. In 2018, Gupta was awarded with the

James Tait Black Memorial Prize The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are literary prizes awarded for literature written in the English language. They, along with the Hawthornden Prize, are Britain's oldest literary awards. Based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, Uni ...

for Drama for her play ''Lions and Tigers''. * EMMA (BT Ethnic and Multicultural Media Award for Best Television Production) (screenplay), for ''Flight'' (1998) *

John Whiting Award Between 1965 and 2010, the John Whiting Award (from 2007 renamed the Peter Wolff Trust Supports the John Whiting Award) was awarded annually to a British or Commonwealth playwright who, in the opinion of a consortium of UK theatres, showed a new ...

, for ''The Waiting Room'' (2000) * Asian Women of Achievement Award (Arts and Culture category) (2003) * EMMA (BT Ethnic and Multicultural Media Award for Best Play) (adaptation), for ''Hobson's Choice'' (2004) *

Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre The Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre is an annual award presented by the Society of London Theatre in recognition of achievements in commercial London theatre. The awards were established as the Society o ...

, for ''Fragile Land''/''Hobson's Choice'' (2004) *

Amnesty International UK Media Awards The Amnesty International Media Awards are a unique set of awards which pay tribute to the best human rights journalism in the UK. Kate Allen, Amnesty International UK's director, said that the awards recognise the "pivotal role of the UK medi ...

(radio play) ''Chitra'' (2005) *

in the

Birthday Honours The Birthday Honours, in some Commonwealth realms, mark the reigning British monarch's official birthday by granting various individuals appointment into national or dynastic orders or the award of decorations and medals. The honours are prese ...

(2008) * BBC Audio Drama Award for Best Adaptation, for ''A Doll's House'' (2013) * Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (2016)
Asian Achievers Awards
- Achievement in Media (2017) *

for Drama for ''Lions and Tigers'' (2018)

References

External links

* *
Tanika Gupta – In Yer Face Theatre

"Tanika Gupta"
British Council Literature
2 Young 2 Luv

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20080324023718/http://www.whatsonstage.com/index.php?pg=207&story=E8821200679850 "20 Questions With… Tanika Gupta" ''Whatsonstage'' 21 January 2008 * Barnett, Laura
"Portrait of the artist: Tanika Gupta, playwright"
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

''. 14 February 2011
Tanika Gupta
''The Asian Writer''. 22 June 2011 {{DEFAULTSORT:Gupta, Tanika 1963 births Living people English Hindus English people of Bengali descent English people of Indian descent English screenwriters English women dramatists and playwrights British Asian writers 20th-century English dramatists and playwrights 20th-century English women writers 21st-century English writers 21st-century English women writers People from Chiswick People educated at Mill Hill School Alumni of the University of Oxford Members of the Order of the British Empire Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature