SUNNY SIDE UP

Sukh Ojla is a comedian, actor and writer. Her first play Pyar Actually toured the UK in 2017 and 2018.

She has performed on Jonathan Ross’s Comedy Club, BBC2’s Big Asian Stand Up Show and across the BBC Asian Network. She has appeared on Mock The Week  and Sorry I Didn’t Know. In 2019, she took her debut solo show For Sukh’s Sake to Edinburgh, which received rave reviews. She is currently on a tour of England with her new show Life Sukhs.

As an actor, Sukh recently appeared in Bridgerton, The End of the F**king World, Feel Good, and as a regular role in GameFace and Class Dismissed. She was also in the feature film Victoria and Abdul.

Sunny is her debut novel. (See Bookworm’s review here).

 Name:  Sukh Ojla. Sukh is short for Sukhjeet which means victorious in happiness.

Currently: I’m working on my second novel, writing scripts for TV and doing comedy shows across the UK.

Favourite colour: Orange/saffron.

Favourite outfit: Anything comfortable. I decided a few years ago that no outfit or pair of shoes is worth being uncomfortable for!

Favourite Bollywood star: Rekha – a timeless beauty and feminist icon.

Favourite Hollywood star: Melissa McCarthy – she always looks like she’s having fun!

Favourite movie: Sholay – one of my earliest memories is watching it on VHS.

Favourite singers: The late, great Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Surjit Bindrakhia and Kuldeep Manak.

Favourite song: In a Sentimental Mood by Duke Ellington.

Favourite TV shows: Most reality shows...people fascinate me! Current favourites include, Love is Blind, Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives and Making The Cut.

Favourite ice cream flavour: Pistachio kulfi.

Favourite cuisine: Punjabi, without a doubt! It always reminds me of home.

Favourite restaurant: Any one of those small, unassuming, family-run Punjabi restaurants that look really basic but have the most amazing, authentic dishes.

Favourite sport: Boxing – but only because I was raised on the Rocky movies!

Favourite sportsperson: Erm...Rocky Balboa?!

Favourite book: The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson.

Favourite activity: Lighting a candle after I’ve deep cleaned my apartment.

I hang out: By myself! Being an only child, I love my own company and crave alone time.

I’m freaked out by:  The vastness of the ocean and what lives down there...

I need: Quiet time by the sea, forehead kisses and carbs. Not necessarily in that order.

I want to be: Living by the sea, writing books and growing my own food, despite the fact that I can’t keep a houseplant alive!

My role models: My parents – neither of them were allowed to go to school as they were expected to help out their families but they both worked hard and made a good life for us. They’ve taught me to be tenacious, kind and hardworking.

Tips to save the planet: Try and cut down on single-use plastics but also lobby the big supermarkets/companies who use them excessively.

In a perfect world: Every child would have access to free education, libraries would have lots of funding and I’d be able to focus on a task for longer than five minutes.

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