My Mother Told Me Not To Listen

I Have Been Extremely Proactive In Putting Myself Up For Characters That May Have Been Meant To Specifically Be Caucasian. You Bring An Interesting Angle To The Character That Isn't Written.

My Mother Wanted To Be A Teacher When She Was Young, And My Father Didn't Approve Of It, So She Fought Very Hard To Become One. And She Did It. So When I Said I Wanted To Become An Actress, My Mother Was Very Supportive. She Always Said To Me, 'there's No Such Thing As 'can't.

When I Started Out In The '90s, There Were Not Many People Of Color Writing, Directing And Producing - Hence, The Roles For People Of Color Were Few And Far Between. There's Still Few Roles In England [where She's From].

A Lot Of The Time, People Want To Hear From Someone Like Myself. They Want To Give It A Shot. It's Challenging, And It's Driven Me More Than Discouraged Me.

I Knew From A Young Age That I Wanted To Be An Actor. I Never Even Thought About Other Careers. The Acting Field Is Certainly Not The Path Many Indian Parents Encourage Their Children To Take, But Mine Were Very Supportive. They Wanted Me To Have An Education, But Understood That This Is What I Wanted To Do.