Preeya Kalidas (born 1980) is a British singer and actress. She is best known for her roles in the films East Is East and Bend It Like Beckham and the soap opera EastEnders, playing Amira Shah. Following her departure from EastEnders, she began a career in singing, with her debut single "Shimmy" being released in July 2010. Born in Isleworth, she was raised in Twickenham, south-west London. ...show more

Preeya Kalidas (born 1980) is a British singer and actress. She is best known for her roles in the films East Is East and Bend It Like Beckham and the soap opera EastEnders, playing Amira Shah. Following her departure from EastEnders, she began a career in singing, with her debut single "Shimmy" being released in July 2010. Born in Isleworth, she was raised in Twickenham, south-west London.

The daughter of an independent financial adviser father, and mother who works for British Airways, she started ballet classes at the age of three, and tap at five. She then trained at the Sylvia Young Theatre School in London. She trained at Songtime Theatre Arts, where her love of acting really began. Kalidas first appeared on screen in the drama Googleyes.

She then went on to play Usha in a short film called Jump Boy in 1998, directed by Menhaj Huda and written by Harsha Patel. After a number of parts in films and on television, including: East is East, Bollywood Queen, My Family and Casualty, in 2002 she appeared as Monica in Gurinder Chadha's film Bend It Like Beckham. She then played the female lead Priya in the Andrew Lloyd Webber-produced Bollywood-style hit show Bombay Dreams, written by A.R. Rahman, Meera Syal and Don Black. ...show less