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 plays.

Early life

Tanika Gupta was born in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

to immigrant parents from

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

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

Tagore Rabindranath Thakur (; anglicised as Rabindranath Tagore ; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengalis, Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer, and painter of the Bengal Renai ...

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 was her great-uncle. After attending Copthall Comprehensive School in London and then Mill Hill School for her A levels, Gupta graduated from Oxford University with a

Modern History The modern era or the modern period is considered the current historical period of human history. It was originally applied to the history of Europe and Western history for events that came after the Middle Ages, often from around the year 1500, ...

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

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

. 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 Islington ( ) is an inner-city area of north London, England, within the wider London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's #Islington High Street, High Street to Highbury Fields ...

, 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 ''EastEnders'' is a British television soap opera created by Julia Smith (producer), Julia Smith and Tony Holland which has been broadcast on BBC One since February 1985. Set in the fictional borough of Walford in the East End of London, the ...

Grange Hill ''Grange Hill'' is a British Children's television series, children's television drama series, originally produced by the BBC and portraying life in a typical Comprehensive school (England and Wales), comprehensive school. The show began its ru ...

and

The Bill ''The Bill'' is a British police procedural television series, broadcast on ITV (TV network), ITV from 16 October 1984 until 31 August 2010. The programme originated from a one-off drama, "Woodentop (The Bill), Woodentop" (part of the ''Storyb ...

. ''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 film, television and theatre. Her career in the Hindi cinema, Hindi film industry has spanned Shabana Azmi filmography, over 160 films, mostly within independent and neorealist paral ...

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 Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...

opened in Stratford upon Avon and is now on the GCSE curriculum along with her adaptation of Ibsen's A Doll's House, 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 British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'', Dominic Cavendish praised ''The Empress'', saying: "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, Dinesh Gupta, 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 valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two 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 The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820 by King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 800 Fellows, elect ...

. In 2017, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Theatre by the University of Chichester. In 2018, Gupta was awarded with the James Tait Black Memorial Prize 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, 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, for ''Fragile Land''/''Hobson's Choice'' (2004) * Amnesty International UK Media Awards (radio play) ''Chitra'' (2005) *

in the Birthday Honours (2008) * BBC Audio Drama Award for Best Adaptation, for ''A Doll's House'' (2013) *

Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820 by George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the ...

(2016) * James Tait Black Memorial Prize 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 Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

''. 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 Bangladeshi Members of the Order of the British Empire Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature