Rukhsana Ahmad
River on Fire Full Production & Tour 2000/01

Rukhsana Ahmad has consistently written and adapted plays for the stage and BBC Radio, achieving distinction in both. Stage plays include: Song for a Sanctuary, (nomination Susan Smith Blackburn International Prize) The Gate-Keeper's Wife, Black Shalwar, River on Fire, (shortlist Susan Smith Blackburn Prize 2002) The Man who refused to be God, (2003) Last Chance and Partners in Crime (2004). Radio plays and adaptations include: Song for a Sanctuary, (CRE, runner-up prize) An Urnful of Ashes, The Errant Gene, Nawal El Saadawi's Woman at Point Zero, Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea, (shortlist CRE award and Writers' Guild award for best adaptation) and R. K. Narayan's The Guide (nominated for Sony). She wrote for Westway (BBC World Service Drama) for over a year.

Rukhsana's first novel, The Hope Chest is published by Virago. Several short stories have been anthologised, most recently in the UK, Walking a Tightrope (Pan McMillan) Canada and India, And Then the World Changed (Women Unlimited). Rukhsana is currently working as the lead writer for a pilot drama series for the World Service Trust in tandem with an original play, Annie's Indian Home Rule, based on her Indian years and an adaptation of Nadeem Aslam's Maps for Lost Lovers for Woman's Hour.

Sonali Bhattacharyya 
A Thin Red Line   Community Tour 2007
Sonali is from Leicester and a core writer for the award-winning BBC Asian Network soap Silver Street.  She is currently working on a multi-authored project for Birmingham Rep, based on the Lozells riots of 2005, and an Afternoon Play for Radio 4, about an Asian businessman who buys a football club.  She co-authored the play White Open Spaces for Pentabus Theatre Company and has also written for Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour. 

Sonia Likhari
Behna (Sisters)Kali Futures 2005

Sonia Likhari left her job as a commercial lawyer to pursue a career in writing and acting. After training at Rose Bruford College she made her theatre debut playing a troubled actress in Sheesh Mahal di Var, a play written in classical Punjabi. She has recently appeared as Mrs Bhoolabhoy in a new stage adaptation of Staying On and has been cast in Tamasha Theatre Company’s The Trouble With Asian Men and the pilot episode of BBC/Hat Trick’s Chopra Town. Sonia has written a script for a short film, No Weigh Out. During drama training she wrote and performed a solo piece, Strictly Kathak. Behna was her first play.

Azma Dar
Paper Thin On Tour February/March 2006

Azma Dar was born in Ashford and grew up in Pinner. She studied art at Central Saint Martins College and then completed a degree in Literature and Classical Studies. Shortly afterwards she joined the Young Writers' Programme at the Royal Court, and began writing plays and a novel. Her work is usually inspired by the people she meets, the odd stories they have to tell and the darkness, hope, and absurdity of the human spirit. She has developed work with Kali Theatre, Theatre Royal Stratford East, and Watermans. She is currently working on two new plays. Chaos was her first full-length play.

Lekha Desai Morrison
The Banyan Tree Kali Shorts & Futures 2005

Lekha was born in Africa, spent part of her childhood in India and the rest in Coventry. She now lives with her family in Oxford where she freelances as an ISO consultant. She has always wanted to write since watching a vibrant outdoor production of The Mahabharat as a child in an Indian village. A published poet and short story writer, she has focused her attention on drama in recent years. She has had two radio plays commissioned by BBC Radio 4. The second, Behind Closed Doors, was broadcast in August and selected by the Observer, Financial Times and the Yorkshire Post as their choice for listening. The play has also been requested by the Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) organisation for their use. The Banyan Tree is Lekha's first stage play.

Bettina Gracias
Singh Tangos On Tour 2003

Bettina attended writing workshops with Bernard Kops and later at Oval House with Kali. Her first play Mangos and Sacher Torte was read at Soho Theatre and presented by Kali as part of More Dramatic Encounters in October 1997. Paines Plough presented Indian Moon, a 30 minute piece, at the Bridewell Theatre as part of the Wild Lunch series. In January 1999, she was invited to a BBC New Writer’s workshop to develop ideas with producers and directors which resulted in BBC Radio 4 commissioning Goan Flame, a 45 minute play, broadcast in October. She has since written 6 other plays for Radio 4 and the World Service, including an adaptation of Singh Tangos which was produced for the stage by Kali Theatre. She has also written a one off drama 'The Wedding Party' for BBC TV. Her latest stage play Other was read at Soho Theatre and was short-listed for the Verity Bargate Award. She is currently working on her latest radio play for Radio 4 and a new screenplay set in Ireland.

Anu Kumar
London Fields Kali Futures 2004

Anu is committed to creating fiction for a multicultural audience. Previous work includes The Ecstasy (Oval House Theatre / Kali) and Waterfall (Ashfield Theatre). Prior to this Anu and friends created approximately 12 amateur productions, four of which were performed at the Edinburgh Festival. Since London Fields, Anu has written a full length TV drama Julia. She is developing For the Sake of my Children, a drama about an innocent Indian GP in the post-Shipman era, and a collection of short stories based in London’s East End. Anu trained in dance and has performed in a variety of venues. She would like to continue working with dancers and music in the future.

Mina Maisuria
Krishna’s Tea Party Kali Shorts & Futures 2005

Based in London. Mina graduated from Mountview Theatre school 4 years ago. As an actress she has worked in varying mediums with different companies such as, Theatre Centre, Polka Theatre, Mercury Theatre (Colchester) and the Black Film Makers Festival. Mina is currently in the process of finishing her first draft of her second play Relief, which explores the deterioration of relationships due to past deception. Krishna’s Tea Party was Mina’s first stage play.

Nina Patel
King Saturn Kali Futures 2004

Nina was born and grew up in London. She has a degree in Business Studies, worked as a fashion designer for ten years and lived in India and the United States. King Saturn is her first full length play for theatre and is inspired by events that have taken place in Mumbai. Her published works include fashion articles, a short story, and poems for the SALIDAA website. Nina is currently working on two novels for teenagers and doing an NOCN in Illustration.

Bapsi Sidhwa
Sock ‘em With Honey On Tour 2004

Born and educated in Pakistan, acclaimed author of four novels, and short fiction and essays, Bapsi has received numerous honours including the Sitara-I-Imtiaz, Pakistan’s highest national award in the arts; the Bunting Fellowship at Harvard, and the Lila Wallace Readers Digest Award. Her third novel, Ice-Candy-Man/Cracking India, was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and became the basis of Deepa Mehta’s award winning 1999 film, Earth. Reviewers have praised her “luminous prose, Rabelaisian language and humour… also both delicate and precise… with words chosen as carefully as pieces of inlay in a marble wall.” Her novels, An American Brat, Cracking India, The Bride and The Crow Eaters, have been translated into several languages. Sock ‘em With Honey will be produced in autumn 2006 (as An American Brat) by Stages Repetory Theatre, Huston.

Shelley Silas
Calcutta Kosher National Tour 2004

Shelley was born in Calcutta and grew up in North London. Her plays include Mercy Fine (Clean Break), UK tour, HMP Drakehall, HMP Cookham Wood, HMP East Sutton Park, HMP Bronzfield, Southwark Playhouse. Calcutta Kosher (Kali), Southwark Playhouse, UK tour, Theatre Royal Stratford East. Falling (The Bush Theatre. Pearson writer-in-residence 2002). Shrapnel (Steam Industry) BAC. Her plays for BBC Radio 4 include creating and co-writing The Magpie Stories. The Sound of Silence (short listed for an Imison Award), Calcutta Kosher, Ink, Collective Fascination and Nothing Happened (with Luke Sorba). She adapted Hanan al-Shaykh's novel Only in London and co-adapted Paul Scott's The Raj Quartet (with John Harvey). She compiled and edited an anthology of short stories, 12 Days, published by Virago. Current projects include a new play for Tamasha Theatre. Her stage plays are published by Oberon.

Yasmin Whittaker Khan
Bells On Tour 2005

Recent work includes Love Stomp, Pleasure and Pain, Lucy (with Kadam Dance Co). Yasmin is developing a new play for Theatre Royal Stratford East about Asian women who've been incarcerated in the UK, and is also under commission to M6 Theatre Company and Pentabus. Film: Lemon Juke Box (a five minute short). Last year she developed Le Grand Jour, a short film by Revolution Films for refugee week. TV: Yasmin researched, scripted and co-presented a series for Anglia TV (With Paul Ross). Radio: BBC Radio Asian Network's Silver Street. Bells opened in Athens, Greece in November 2005.