Nikita Kanda was born on 29 July 1995 in Birmingham, West Midlands.[1][2] She is of Indian descent.[3] She studied film and screen media at university, and after graduating, worked on Zee TV and presented the drivetime show on Asian Star 101.6FM.[4] She took part in West End theatre productions including The Wiz, Bugsy Malone, Annie and Pocahontas.[1] Kanda also appeared as one of the thirty women on the final series of the ITV dating show Take Me Out in 2019.[5]
In March 2021, Kanda joined the BBC Asian Network, serving primarily as a regular relief presenter and hosted on Saturday afternoons.[6][7] In July 2022, she began temporarily presenting the Asian Network Breakfast Show, and was subsequently appointed as the permanent host in January 2023.[8][9][10] For her work on the station, she was nominated for Presenter of the Year at the Asian Media Awards.[11] Kanda is also a frequent reporter on The One Show, and has fronted a range of topics including the rise of cashless businesses and government support for female sport.[11]
In August 2023, it was announced that Kanda would be a contestant on the twenty-first series of Strictly Come Dancing.[3][12] Kanda described her participation as a "dream come true" and said she was "still pinching [herself]", adding that she "[didn't] think it [would] properly sink in until [she stepped] onto the dancefloor".[13] She was the second celebrity to be eliminated.