Preeya Kalidas

Preeya Kalidas (born 21 June 1980) is an English singer and actress. She played Amira Masood in the soap opera EastEnders, from 2009 to 2012. She released the single "Shimmy" in July 2010, taken from her proposed debut album (I'm Over It) Constant Craving; however, the album was never released. Early life Preeya Kalidas was born to Indian Gujarati parents in Isleworth, and was raised in Twickenham, South-West London. Her father is an independent financial adviser, and her mother works for British Airways. She started ballet classes at the age of three, and tap at five. She then trained at the Sylvia Young Theatre School in London. She also trained at Songtime Theatre Arts. Career 1998–2010 Kalidas first appeared on screen in the drama Googleyes. She went on to play Usha in a short film called Jump Boy in 1998, directed by Menhaj Huda and written by Harsha Patel. After a number of parts in films and on television, including East is East, Bollywood Queen, My Family and Casualty, in 2002 she appeared as Monica in Gurinder Chadha's film Bend It Like Beckham. She then played the female lead Priya in the Andrew Lloyd Webber-produced show Bombay Dreams, written by A.R. Rahman, Meera Syal and Don Black. She also appeared in the BBC Television series Bodies as Dr. Maya Dutta.