Tanika Gupta (born 1 December 1963) is a British playwright. Apart from her work for the theatre, she has also written scripts for television, film and radio plays.

Early life Tanika Gupta was born in London to immigrant parents from Kolkata, India, where her family had their origins. As a child, Gupta performed Tagore dance dramas with her parents. Her mother Gairika Gupta was an Indian classically trained dancer, and her father Tapan Gupta was a singer. The Indian revolutionary Dinesh Gupta was her great-uncle.

After attending Copthall Comprehensive School in London and then Mill Hill School for her A levels, Gupta graduated from Oxford University with a Modern History degree. After Oxford, her political commitment found expression in her work for an Asian women's refuge in Manchester. In 1988, she married David Archer, an anti-poverty activist and ActionAid's current Head of Tax Justice and Public Services, whom she met at university. She and her husband then moved to London where Gupta was initially a community worker in Islington, writing in her spare time.

Career Over the past 25 years Tanika has written over 25 stage plays that have been produced in major theatres across the UK. She has also written 30 radio plays for the BBC and several original television dramas, as well as scripts for EastEnders, Grange Hill and The Bill. The Waiting Room (produced for the National Theatre in 2000) was an early career highpoint with Indian film star Shabana Azmi performing on the stage in London for the first time.

Gupta's 2013 play The Empress, about Abdul Karim and Queen Victoria opened in Stratford upon Avon and is now on the GCSE curriculum along with her adaptation of Ibsen's A Doll's House, which was first performed at Hammersmith Lyric in 2018. Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Dominic Cavendish praised The Empress, saying: "This fascinating new theatre production has got 'make this into a movie' written all over it".

Her play Lions and Tigers performed at the Sam Wannamaker in Shakespeare's Globe Theatre tells the remarkable story set in the 1930s of her great-uncle, Dinesh Gupta, an Indian freedom fighter. Lions and Tigers is now published in Methuen's series of Modern Classics. Praise for Lions and Tigers singled out the "intimate storytelling, where Gupta's writing is at its most playful and potent" for particular note. Other notable plays include Sugar Mummies (Royal Court Theatre 2006); Gladiator Games (Sheffield Crucible Theatre 2006); Hobson's Choice (Young Vic 2001 and Manchester Royal Exchange 2018). Her most recent productions are Mirror on the Moor (Royal Court Living Newspaper, April 2021), and The Overseas Student (Hammersmith Lyric, June 2021).

Personal life Gupta and her husband have two daughters, Nandini (born 1991), Niharika (born 1993), and a son Malini (born 2000).

Works Theatre plays Year Title 1995 Voices on the Wind (NT Studio) 1997 Skeleton (Soho) 1997 A River Sutra (NT Studio / 3 Mill Island) 1998 On The Couch with Enoch (BAC) 2000 The Waiting Room (National Theatre) 2002 Sanctuary (National Theatre) Inside Out (Arcola) 2003 Hobson's Choice (Young Vic) Fragile Land (Hampstead) 2004 The Country Wife (Watford) 2006 Gladiator Games (Sheffield Crucible) Catch (Royal Court) Sugar Mummies (Royal Court) 2008 Meet The Mukherjees (Bolton Octagon) White Boy (Soho) 2010 Great Expectations (Watford) 2012 Wah Wah Girls (Saddlers Wells / Peacock Theatre) 2013 Love'N'Stuff (Stratford East) 2013 The Empress (RSC) 2015 Anita and Me (Birmingham Rep)2016 A Midsummer Night's Dream (dramaturg at The Globe)2017 Lions and Tigers (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, London) A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian (Hull Truck)2018 Hobsons's Choice (Royal Exchange)2019 A Doll's House (Lyric Hammersmith, London) Red Dust Road (National Theatre Scotland/Edinburgh International Festival) Hobson's Choice (Manchester Royal Exchange) Bones (Royal Central School of Speech and Drama)2021 Mirror on the Moor (Royal Court, London)2021 The Overseas Student (Lyric Hammersmith, London)2024 A Tupperware of Ashes (National Theatre, London)

Radio plays Year Title 1991 Asha (BBC Radio 4) 1994 Badal and his Bike (BBC Radio 5) Kiss Me Quick (BBC Radio 5) 1996 Pankhiraj (BBC Radio 4) 1997 Ananda Sananda (BBC Radio 4) Kiss Me Quick (BBC Radio 5) The Bounty Hunter (BBC Radio 4) Skeleton (BBC Radio 4) 1998 Voices On The Wind (BBC World Service) Red Oleanders (BBC Radio 3) Westway (BBC World Service) 1999 Muse of Fusion (BBC Radio 4) Coat (BBC Radio 4) Waistland (BBC Radio 4) The Queen's Retreat (BBC Radio 4) 2000 The Eternal Bubble (BBC World Service) The Secret (BBC Radio 4) The Book of Secrets (BBC Radio 4) 2001 Betrayal: The Trial of William Davidson (BBC) Stowaway (BBC) 2002 A Second Chance (BBC Radio 3) 2003 The Parting (BBC Radio 4) 2004 The God of Small Things (BBC Radio 4) 2005 Chitra (BBC Radio 4) 2008 Rudolpho's Zest (BBC Radio 3) Silver Street (BBC Asian Network) 2010 Rescue Me (BBC Radio 4) 2012 A Doll's House (BBC Radio 3) 2013 Pather Panchali (BBC Radio 4) 2014 Baby Farming (BBC Radio 3)

Filmography Year Title Notes Credit 1995 Flight TV film Writer Bideshi Short Siren Spirits 1 episode: "Bideshi" 1999 The Fiancée Short 2000 EastEnders 4 episodes: inc "17 January 2000" 1997–2000 Grange Hill 7 episodes: "20:19", "20:20", "21:15", "22.9", "22:10", "23:5", "23:6" 2001 Crossroads Unknown episodes The Bill 1 episode: "Complicity (Part 2)" 2002 The Lives of Animals TV film Screenplay 2006 Banglatown Banquet 2010 Non-Resident Short Writer 2018 Pritilata Monologue as part of Snatches series, BBC Writer

Awards and recognition In 2008, Gupta was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2008 New Year Honours for her services to drama. In June 2016 she was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. In 2017, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Theatre by the University of Chichester.

In 2018, Gupta was awarded with the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Drama for her play Lions and Tigers.

EMMA (BT Ethnic and Multicultural Media Award for Best Television Production) (screenplay), for Flight (1998) John Whiting Award, for The Waiting Room (2000) Asian Women of Achievement Award (Arts and Culture category) (2003) EMMA (BT Ethnic and Multicultural Media Award for Best Play) (adaptation), for Hobson's Choice (2004) Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre, for Fragile Land/Hobson's Choice (2004) Amnesty International UK Media Awards (radio play) Chitra (2005) Member of the Order of the British Empire in the Birthday Honours (2008) BBC Audio Drama Award for Best Adaptation, for A Doll's House (2013) Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (2016) James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Drama for Lions and Tigers (2018)

See also British Indians List of British Indians

References

External links

Tanika Gupta – In Yer Face Theatre "Tanika Gupta", British Council Literature 2 Young 2 Luv Great Expectations adapted by Tanika Gupta, premieres at Watford Palace Theatre "20 Questions With… Tanika Gupta". Whatsonstage 21 January 2008 Barnett, Laura. "Portrait of the artist: Tanika Gupta, playwright". The Guardian. 14 February 2011 Tanika Gupta. The Asian Writer. 22 June 2011