Hollyoaks star Harvey Virdi was honoured with one of the Asian Media Awards highest accolades in Manchester.
Journalists and broadcasters joined actors and presenters at the 12th ceremony, which celebrates achievements in a range of categories in TV, radio, stage, online and creative media.
The ceremony is supported by the University of Salford and took place at the Hilton Manchester Deansgate on Friday October 25.
Harvey Virdi was presented with Sophiya Haque Services to British TV, Film & Theatre honour, an award named after the celebrated stage and Coronation Street actress who died aged 41 in 2013.
Sophiya’s cousins Syed and Riyadh Haque welcomed Harvey to the stage.
In a career spanning three decades Harvey Virdi has been a constant feature in the some of the UK’s most favourite productions, films, dramas and soaps.
Speaking on stage she said: “A long time ago I was going give up my career and be an actor.
“As you can imagine there was a lot of bewilderment. A little bit of ‘oh my god’ what is she doing?
“I still did it and it took almost ten years before my parents came to see me on stage. But they came to see a play about partition.
“And my dad had experience of partition. So, after the show he said, now I know what you do. I think he got it, and it was about sharing our stories. Telling our stories. Our family stories.”
Earlier she spoke to the Asian Media Awards of her career which began in the early 1990s.
She said: “Change has been slow but creative people have always been chipping away. Often creating work rather than waiting for it to come their way. And now, it is good to see strong South-Asian characters on screen and stage.
“Not just actors, but writers, directors and designers all contributing to sharing our stories. There are more and more talented South-Asan creatives entering the business and it is a joyous thing.”
She recalled her first acting roles, “My major barrier was myself! Insecurities about not being good enough, guilt at trying to forge a different path to one expected from family and a slow realisation that there were some roles I was never going to be seen for.
“But that doesn’t mean you stop. If anything, it flamed the fire in my belly. You just have to find your own way round it.”
She called for more diversity behind the cameras as well as on screen and stage.
She added: “South-Asian creatives are becoming more mainstream and I would like to see this across the board.
“Not just theatre, but TV and film; not only in front of the camera but backstage too. As cameramen and women, writers and designers, producers and musicians
“This can only happen with opportunities, access and funding.”
Born in Nairobi, Harvey settled with her family in London and first got the acting bug when she went on school trip to do a backstage tour of the National Theatre.
She would gain her first acting role touring with the Soap Box Theatre Company, thirty years ago in 1994.
She followed this up with a number of theatre credits include The Borrowers, When We are Married, Twelfth Night and Romeo and Juliet (in 2000), Square Circle, Playboy of the Asian World, Airport 2000 and Jatinder Verma’s production of ‘Exodus’.
In 2003, she was ‘Mrs Peachum’ in a touring production of The Threepenny Opera for the Royal National Theatre. In 2004 she gave a critically acclaimed Maria in an Indian-themed production of Twelfth Night at the Albery Theatre.
Her long list of theatre credits, including working at The National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), helped make her one of the most recognisable talents on the stage inspiring a whole generation of actors from diverse backgrounds and communities.
On television, she played Nina Mandal, in Coronation Street and was a supporting cast member in two seasons of Class Dismissed. Most recently she has appeared as Misbah Malik in Hollyoaks and Mrs Malik in Citizen Khan. She would also feature in The Kumars at No. 42, Boohbah, Doctors, Lucky Man and Whose Baby?, among many other TV roles.
Her film credits include Bend It Like Beckham, Anita and Me, Thunderbirds, Bride and Prejudice, The Mistress of Spices, Honour, Jadoo, and Brick Lane.
On Radio, she has voiced a number of BBC produced shows and wrote a radio drama ‘Park Life’ for BBC Radio 4. She would also write three highly-acclaimed Rifco Arts productions which celebrated quintessential South Asian cultures – Meri Christmas in 2006, Happy Birthday Sunita in 2014 and 2023 and Miss Meena and the Masala Queens in 2017.
This year’s Asian Media Awards winners were announced at the Hilton Manchester Deansgate on Friday October 25.
Previous recipients of an Asian Media Award include Krishnan Guru-Murthy, Waris Hussein, Art Malik, Mehdi Hasan, Nina Wadia, Anita Rani, Shobna Gulati, Faisal Islam, Kulvinder Ghir, Adil Ray, Lisa Aziz, Meera Syal, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Tina Daheley & Mihir Bose.
The University of Salford are Premier Partners to the Asian Media Awards.
Partners to the awards include ITV, EssenceMediacom, Reach PLC, Women In Journalism & Lancashire Mind.
The awards are also supported by Manchester Metropolitan University, AMT Lawyers, DKR Accountants, Opus Broadband, Janan, Hilton Manchester Deansgate, Fritz AV, Payal Events & Cleartwo.
