Manjinder Virk

Manjinder Virk was born in Coventry, England to parents of Indian origin. Her mother's name is Jasvir, while her father was Harbhajan Singh Virk.^[1][2] She comes from a family of three children.^[3]

She began acting at the Belgrade Youth Theatre in Coventry and went on to become artistic director of Pangram Dance Theatre with her brother, Hardish.^[4][3]

She went on to earn a degree in contemporary dance at De Montfort University in Leicester.^{[citation needed]}

In 1999, Virk began her television career on the British TV series Holby City. She appeared in the soap opera Doctors, as Karen Slater in 2000. In 2003, she wrote a play for a show for touring company Theatre Centre titled Glow.^[5][6] In 2004, she again appeared on the soap opera Doctors to play Laila Khalid, and returned to the show in 2007 as Harpit Jindal. Also in 2007, Virk appeared in Britz as Nasima Wahid.

In 2008, Virk wrote and directed the short film Forgive starring Sacha Dhawan and Abdi Gouhad.^[7] She portrayed Lorraine Dunbar in the 2010 documentary The Arbor. For the latter, she earned three nominations: Best Newcomer at the BFI London Film Festival Awards and Best Actress and Newcomer at the British Independent Film Awards. She later had recurring roles on the British medical drama show Monroe in 2011, and the BBC One spy drama series Hunted in 2012. Also in 2012, she wrote and directed another short film, Out of Darkness, starring Tom Hiddleston, Monica Dolan, Andrew Gower, Jimmy Akingbola, Christine Bottomley and Riz Ahmed.

Virk had a recurring role as the coroner the popular detective series Midsomer Murders, from 2016 to 2018. In 2022, Virk appeared as DI Samira Desai in the thriller series Trigger Point alongside Vicky McClure. The following year, she played a grieving mother in an episode of Shetland.

She met husband Neil Biswas on the set of the TV drama Bradford riots in 2007.^[4] In 2013, they were living in Brixton, South London.^[8]

Virk was nominated in 2010 for Best Newcomer at the BFI London Film Festival Awards and Best Actress and Newcomer at the British Independent Film Awards,^[9][10] both for her role in The Arbor. She was one of the UK Stars of Tomorrow in Screen International in 2007.^[4] She was also nominated for Asian Woman of Achievement Award in 2008.^[11]

In 2013, for her short film Out of Darkness, Virk won Best of Fest award at the Aesthetica Short Film Festival.^[12]