26-496: The WhatsOnStage Awards ( WOS Awards ), formerly known as the Theatregoers' Choice Awards , are organised by the theatre website WhatsOnStage.com . The awards recognise performers and productions of British theatre with an emphasis on London 's West End theatre . Nominations and eventual winners are selected by the theatre-going public's vote. The awards are held each February. Between 2012 and 2023, they have been staged at
52-647: A 2003 BBC interview as semi-autobiographical. She attended Queen Mary's High School in nearby Walsall and then studied English and Drama at Manchester University , graduating with a Double First . In 2023, she was awarded the BAFTA Fellowship, its highest accolade, for her career on screen. During her studies in Manchester, Syal joined the Stephen Joseph Studio , acting and later writing stage plays. On graduation, she had secured
78-410: A castaway was a piano. Having studied English at university and penned two novels and a variety of scripts and screenplays, Syal was chosen as one of the guests on "The Cultural Exchange" slot of Front Row on 30 April 2013, when she nominated To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee as a piece of art work which she loved. As a journalist, she writes occasionally for The Guardian . Syal won
104-576: A high school football coach in the film Beautiful Thing . She was on the team that wrote and performed in the BBC comedy sketch show Goodness Gracious Me (1996–2001), originally on radio and then on television. She was a scriptwriter on A.R. Rahman and Andrew Lloyd Webber 's Bombay Dreams and she played the grandmother Sushila in the International Emmy -award-winning series The Kumars at No. 42 , which ran for seven series, reviving
130-476: A one-woman show at the Menier Chocolate Factory , later transferring to Trafalgar Studios . In the same year she played Nasreen Chaudhry in two episodes of Doctor Who alongside Matt Smith . Syal's memoir is due to be published in 2025. Syal is an occasional singer, having achieved a number one record with Gareth Gates and her co-stars from The Kumars at No. 42 with " Spirit in
156-547: A place to study for an MA in drama and psychotherapy at the University of Leeds , and then to study for a PGCE to teach. However, she had also co-written the one-woman play One of Us with Jackie Shapiro, in which Syal performed all fifteen parts, about a West Midlands-born ethnic Indian girl who ran away from home to become an actress. First performed at the Stephen Joseph Studio, she then performed it at
182-631: A son, born in 2005. In 2004, Syal took part in one episode of the BBC series Who Do You Think You Are? , which investigated her family history. Syal discovered that both her grandfathers were supporters of the Indian independence movement : one as a communist journalist , the other as a Punjab protester who was briefly imprisoned in the Golden Temple . Syal's brother is investigative journalist Rajeev Syal, who covers Whitehall , writing stories for The Guardian . In February 2009, Syal
208-559: A star-studded launch event held in early December. Voting then opens and runs until the end of January the following year. In 2012–13, over 60,000 theatregoers logged on to vote, with leaders in many categories fluctuating dramatically from day to day. The 2016 WhatsOnStage Awards concert and ceremony took place on 21 February at the Prince of Wales Theatre and were hosted by Mel Giedroyc and Steve Furst . The 2017 WhatsOnStage Awards concert and ceremony took place on 19 February 2017 at
234-623: Is a London-based website that provides information about, and offers tickets for, theatrical performances in the United Kingdom . It also organizes the annual WhatsOnStage Awards . Founded in 1996, it has been owned by the American company TheaterMania.com since January 2013. Its chief operating officer is Sita McIntosh. This website-related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Meera Syal Meera Syal CBE FRSL (born Feroza Syal ; 27 June 1961)
260-629: Is an English comedian, writer, playwright, singer, journalist and actress. She rose to prominence as one of the team that created Goodness Gracious Me and by portraying Sanjeev's grandmother, Ummi, in The Kumars at No. 42 . She has become one of the UK's best-known Asian personalities. She was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 1997 New Year Honours and in 2003
286-813: The BAFTA Fellowship, regarded as the highest accolade of the British Academy Television Awards . Syal married journalist Shekhar Bhatia in 1989; they divorced in 2002. Their daughter, Milli Bhatia, is associate director of the Royal Court Theatre . In January 2005, Syal married her frequent collaborator, Sanjeev Bhaskar , who plays her grandson in The Kumars at No. 42 ; the marriage ceremony took place in Lichfield register office, Staffordshire. They have
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#1732787089030312-549: The COVID-19 pandemic , the 2021 WhatsOnStage Awards were held virtually. They did not honour creatives as they traditionally did but instead recognised 21 members of the public who had supported the theatre industry during the pandemic. The 2022 WhatsOnStage Awards concert and ceremony were held on 27 February 2022 at the Prince of Wales Theatre. The 2023 WhatsOnStage Awards concert and ceremony were held on 12 February 2023 at
338-744: The National Student Drama Festival where it won a prize to perform at the Edinburgh International Festival , where it also won a prize. As a result, a director from the Royal Court Theatre contacted Syal, and asked her to perform in a play at the Royal Court on a three-year contract. Syal wrote the screenplay for the 1993 film Bhaji on the Beach , directed by Gurinder Chadha , of Bend It Like Beckham fame. In 1996 she played Miss Chauhan,
364-432: The 2002 awards, the editors compiled their own shortlists and in 2003, they held their first launch party to announce the shortlists to around 200 industry guests. The first awards concert and ceremony was introduced for the 2008 awards. Each year, the awards shortlists are drawn up with the help of thousands of theatregoers who log on to nominate their favourites across all 20+ awards categories. Nominations are announced at
390-649: The 960-seat Lyric Theatre . The concert moved to the 1,100-seat Prince of Wales Theatre for the 2009 awards and was a sell-out for four straight years from 2009–2012. The concert moved to the Palace Theatre for the 2013 awards but returned to the Prince of Wales Theatre for 2014. Performance categories Production categories Special categories Defunct categories 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 WhatsOnStage.com WhatsOnStage.com
416-1011: The Launch Party have included Graham Norton , Elaine Paige , Michael Ball , Lesley Garrett , Ryan Molloy , James Earl Jones , Jools Holland , Patina Miller , Julian Clary , Jeremy Irons , Simon Russell Beale , Bertie Carvel and Meera Syal . West End stars who have performed at the Awards Concerts at the Prince of Wales have included Alfie Boe , Sally Ann Triplett , Ryan Molloy , Jodie Prenger , Hannah Waddingham , Leanne Jones , Jill Halfpenny , Hadley Fraser , Ramin Karimloo , Rosemary Ashe , Nancy Sullivan , Samantha Barks , Sarah Lark , Kim Criswell , Siobhan McCarthy , Julie Atherton , Suranne Jones , Elena Roger , Sean Palmer , Clare Foster , Hannah Waddingham , Dean Chisnall, Brian May , Kerry Ellis , Tim Minchin , Melanie C and Sam Tutty . The inaugural launch party
442-901: The National Student Drama Award for performing in One of Us which was written by Jacqueline Shapiro while at university. She won the Betty Trask Award for her first book Anita and Me and the Media Personality of the Year award at the Commission for Racial Equality 's annual Race in the Media awards in 2000. She was given the Nazia Hassan Foundation award in 2003. In 2011–12, Syal
468-432: The Prince of Wales Theatre and were hosted by Simon Lipkin and Vikki Stone . The 2018 WhatsOnStage Awards concert and ceremony took place on 25 February 2018 at the Prince of Wales Theatre. The 2019 WhatsOnStage Awards concert and ceremony took place on 3 March 2019 at the Prince of Wales Theatre. The 2020 WhatsOnStage Awards concert and ceremony took place on 1 March 2020 at the Prince of Wales Theatre. Due to
494-570: The Prince of Wales Theatre. The 2024 WhatsOnStage Awards concert and ceremony were be held on 11 February 2024 at the London Palladium . Presenters of the WhatsOnStage Awards have included James Corden , Sheridan Smith , Christopher Biggins , Mel Giedroyc , Miranda Hart , Alan Davies , Jenny Eclair , Rufus Hound , Steve Furst , Vikki Stone and Simon Lipkin . Over the years, guest presenters and performers at
520-741: The Sky ", the Comic Relief single. She earlier (1988) provided vocals for a bhangra version of "Then He Kissed Me", composed by Biddu and with the Pakistani pop star Nazia Hassan , as part of the short-lived girl band Saffron. In June 2003 she appeared as a guest on BBC Radio 4 's Desert Island Discs programme with a selection of music by Nitin Sawhney , Madan Bala Sindhu, Joni Mitchell , Pizzicato Five , Sukhwinder Singh , Louis Armstrong and others. The luxury she chose to ease her life as
546-514: The West End's Prince of Wales Theatre , with the awards being moved to the London Palladium for the 2024 edition. In early 2001, WhatsOnStage.com published the shortlists for that year's Laurence Olivier Awards and invited site visitors to vote online for who they thought should win. In a fortnight, 5,000 people took part – and their results differed wildly from the Olivier judges. For
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#1732787089030572-524: The character in 2021 for BBC Radio 4 's Gossip and Goddesses with Granny Kumar . In October 2008, she starred in the BBC Two sitcom Beautiful People . This role, as Aunty Hayley, continued in 2009. Syal starred in the eleventh series of Holby City as consultant Tara Sodi. In 2009, she guest starred in Minder and starred in the film Mad, Sad & Bad . In 2010, she played Shirley Valentine in
598-497: The north. Her Indian Punjabi parents, Surinder Syal (father) and Surinder Kaur (mother), came to the United Kingdom from New Delhi . When she was young, the family moved to Bloxwich , north of Walsall . This landscape, and the family's status as the only Asian family in the small Midlands mining village of Essington, were later to form the backdrop to her novel (later filmed) Anita and Me , which Syal described in
624-467: Was appointed visiting professor of contemporary theatre at St Catherine's College, Oxford . She has an honorary degree from SOAS, University of London and from the University of Roehampton . She received her CBE insignia from the Prince of Wales on 6 May 2015 at Buckingham Palace . In 2017, Syal was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature . In May 2023, she received
650-537: Was held at The Venue, before moving to the Dominion Theatre in 2004, Planet Hollywood in 2005 and 2006, and Café de Paris , where it has been every year since with the exception of the 2009 awards, when it was held at the London Hippodrome as part of their campaign to save the venue as a performance space. The first awards concert and ceremony was introduced for the 2008 awards and was held at
676-700: Was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy. She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2015 New Year Honours for services to drama and literature. In 2023, she was awarded the BAFTA Fellowship . Syal was born on 27 June 1961 in Wolverhampton and grew up in Essington , Staffordshire , a mining village a few miles to
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