Preeya Kalidas
Preeya Kalidas is a singer, actor and songwriter.
She made history as the first British Asian female to play the lead in a musical in the role of Priya in the West End production of AR Rahman and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Bombay Dreams.
Preeya has also starred in award winning feature films Four Lions, alongside Oscar Nominee Riz Ahmed, and Gurinder Chadha’s Bend it like Beckham. She made a powerful impact when she joined the nations favourite Eastenders as Amira Shah.
Elsewhere on screen, Preeya played the title role in BAFTA nominated Bollywood Carmen and also starred in Peter Kosminsky’s BAFTA award winning Britz for Channel 4, BBC’s Mistresses, Jed Mercurio’s hit BBC series Bodies, BBC’s Banglatown Banquet alongside Shabana Azmi and BBC drama England Expects with Steven Mackintosh.
On stage, Preeya was nominated for an Olivier Award for the role of Pinky in Bend it like Beckham the Musical. She also starred opposite Ashley Walters in Levi Addai’s Oxford Street at London’s prestigious Royal Court Theatre. She also played iconic Margo Leadbetter in the original cast of Jeremy Sams’ stage adaptation of iconic British comedy The Good Life, and was the first British Asian to star in the original London production of School of Rock and as Miss Hedge in Everybody’s talking about Jamie. She also featured as Milady in feature film The Musketeers , and short film Paso Doblé opposite Aiden Turner.
In 2023 she is in award winning play The Doctor alongside Juliette Stevenson which will transfer to New York summer 2023. Preeya co-wrote the song Mahi Sona with Naughty Boy and Nitin Sawhney for the film What’s love got to do with it.