Skip to main content
WorldBBC

Ambika Mod says the 'glass ceiling is always getting higher' for South Asian actors

Read the full story at BBC

Ambika Mod says the 'glass ceiling is always getting higher' for South Asian actors

Mod, who joins the cast of Black Doves for the second season of the streamer's spy thriller, tells BBC Newsbeat she is careful about the roles she takes on. As the daughter of Indian immigrants the 31-year-old, from Hatfield, says a "central tenet" of her work is to "change how South Asian women are seen on-screen and the characters that we are seen in".

She has previously spoken about not having access to the same "privilege" , external some of her fellow actors do when it comes to roles. Fans have questioned why she hasn't gone on to appear in as many roles as her One Day co-star Leo Woodall, who's since appeared in major films including Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy and A24's Anthony Bourdain biopic, Tony.

Addressing this remark, Mod tells Newsbeat she thinks "there's definitely an issue in this industry with systemic racism". A report from the Creative Diversity Network , external suggested that representation of minority ethnic groups on and off-screen dropped slightly last year, after a few years of improvement.