Pooja Shah

Who is Pooja Shah?

Pooja Ashwin Shah is a British Asian actress and model of Kenyan-Asian descent. Her grandparents migrated to Kenya from Gujarat in Western India and so her ancestral roots are there.

Shah has trained as an Indian classical dancer. She attended the University of Brighton, graduating in 2001 with a BA Hons Degree in Theatre with Visual Practice.

She began her acting career in the theatre and went on to play the lead role of Mary Magdalene in a small budget film named Jesus The Curry King. The film was produced by the Aylesbury Film Company and was one of the first digital films to be shown in cinemas in the UK.

In 2002 Shah played Meena in the film Bend It Like Beckham and later that year she played one of the lead roles, Sinjata, in the Sky One series Is Harry On The Boat? based on the best selling book and film. The story is about holiday reps in Ibiza and was filmed in Almunecar in Southern Spain.

Other credits include roles in the BBC hospital drama Holby City, and the American series Adventure Inc..

In 2003 Shah was cast in her most notable role to date. She played Kareena Ferreira in the BBC soap opera EastEnders. The Ferreira family were not well received by critics or viewers and were dismissed as unrealistic by the Asian community in the UK. In 2004 the new executive producer, Kathleen Hutchison, made the decision to axe the entire family in a bid to improve the show, which had suffered from a vast ratings decline. Shah subsequently left the show in 2005.