“Best Comedy”

At The British Soap Awards 2009, an annual awards ceremony to honor the best of British soap operas, Nina Wadia won the Best Comedy Performance as also Best Onscreen Partnership for her onscreen relationship with Nitin Ganatra. This event which first began in 1999 and takes place in May each year is held at the BBC Television Centre, in London. Playing the role of Zainab Masood in the long running BBC soap opera EastEnders since 2007 Wadia portrays the "tough-talking businesswoman” who despite her "fierce manner” is a "devoted mother” and "great fun” with a "wicked sense of humor.” Earlier Wadia had a minor role in the show in 1994, playing a nurse named Viv. When asked about similarities between herself and Ma­sood, Wadia noted in an interview with Sunday Mirror: "We couldn’t be more different. At least, I like to think so!”

Contending with other soap operas nominated for awards like Coronation Street, Doc­­tors, Emmerdale and Hollyoaks, East­Enders was declared the Best British Soap in 2009. First broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on February 19, 1985 it currently ranks as one of the most watched shows in the United Kingdom. With its 3,841st episode screened (as on September 1, 2009) EastEnders storyline examines the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End of London. Tackling many controversial and taboo issues previously unseen on mainstream television in the UK, it has been inducted into the Rose d’Or Hall of Fame and has won close to 50 awards, whether as the Best Soap, Most Popular Serial Drama or Best Continuing Drama, notes an introduction to the serial on Wikipedia.

Nina Wadia: a wicked sense of humor

Having won the Chairman’s Award at the Asian Women awards in 2004 Wadia is best known for starring in the sketch show Goodness Gracious Me. She has also made several guest appearances in various British comedies and dramas, such as 2point4 Children, The Vicar of Dibley, Thin Ice Chambers, Holby City, Murder in Mind and Doctors. She was a regular presenter on the ITV topical chat show, Loose Women (2005-2006) and has most recently appeared in the E4 teen comedy/drama Skins. Wadia played a wedding guest in the comedy film Bend It Like Beckham and a scene-stealing role as the housekeeper in the film I Can’t Think Straight, directed by Shamim Sarif. She has also had a minor part in the film Code 46 (2003). She starred in a BFI/BBC film Sixth Happiness along with Firdaus Kanga in 1997. The film explores sexuality, disability and the Parsis. "I used to be very religious until I was about 25,” Wadia had conveyed in her Sunday Mirror interview. When wearing the sudreh-kusti became impractical as an actress, she stopped, "but now when I am not working I go back to it because I do have a great love for my religion.” She has also starred alongside Rishi Kapoor playing his wife in a Bollywood film titled Namaste London. Her other roles include Alex in Chambers, Maggie in Perfect World, Rupinder in All About Me and Neena in the TV adaptation of White Teeth.

Apart from the radio version of Goodness Gracious Me, her other radio work includes guesting on Parsons and Naylor’s Pull-Out Sections, as well as regular appearances in the BBC World Service soap opera Westway as the pharmacist Namita ul-Haq.

Wadia is married to composer Raiomond Mirza. After their marriage in Canada they settled down in Staines, Surrey with their two children. Candidly admitting how her family had almost given up on her marrying until she met Raiomond when she was 29, in the Sunday Mirror interview she recalled her mother’s efforts to matchmake "with this guy from India. I am sure he was a nice man, but he was very old fashioned in his view of women. He said to me, in this heavy Bombay accent: ‘It’s OK, I know you are kind of a wild girl, but I will tame you!’”

Wadia was involved in the Pakistan Earthquake Appeal Concert and Fashion Show at the Royal Albert Hall in 2005. She has also been involved in campaigning for Save the Children and for increased organ donation from Asians in Britain. The adventurer counts "jumping off high cliffs and hang gliding down, preferably in one piece” amongst her interests, one of her most notable jumps being from the mountain next to Sugar Loaf in Rio. She likes to listen to ska and salsa music.