Shiv Jalota

Jalota was born on 26 December 1993 in Kingston upon Thames.^[1] He studied drama at Richmond Drama School and later joined the National Youth Theatre in 2013 after it was recommended by a friend, where he appeared in the stage production Homegrown: a true story.^[1] Jalota credited the theatre company for helping him to break into the entertainment industry. He subsequently went on to appear in an array of stage shows including Pigeon English, Romeo and Juliet, DNA, The Grapes of Wrath, Mother Courage and Her Children, Catalyst and Pappy Show.^[2] In 2016, he made his short film debut, appearing as a gym-goer in Heavy Weight.^[3] In 2018, Jalota secured the lead role of Christopher Boone in the play The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, becoming the first British-Asian actor to do so.^[4] Of his casting, Jalota said he "found it a relief to jump out of standard BAME personas" and added that it was "more rewarding and not associated at all with [his] ethnicity."^[5]

In 2019, Jalota was cast in the BBC soap opera EastEnders as Vinny Panesar, the youngest brother in the Panesar family.^[6][7] He made his on-screen debut on 29 October, arriving alongside the character's brothers Kheerat (Jaz Deol) and Jags (Amar Adatia).^[8][9] His character's storylines on the show have included his relationship with Dotty Cotton (Milly Zero) and the introduction of and relationship with his parents Suki (Balvinder Sopal) and Nish (Navin Chowdhry).^{[10][11][12][13]}