Parminder Nagra

Pics from her baby shower
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source: us magazine
 
http://www.usmagazine.com/news/er-parminder-nagra-welcomes-baby-boy-2009275

EXCLUSIVE: ER's Parminder Nagra Welcomes Baby Boy
Wednesday May 27, 2009
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Parminder Nagra, best known for her role as Dr. Neela Rasgotra on NBC's ER, has welcomed a baby boy.
"Parminder Nagra and her husband James Stenson are thrilled to announce the birth of their son, Kai David Singh Stenson," her rep tells Usmagazine.com exclusively. "He was born on Tuesday, May 19. Mother, daddy and baby are all doing great."
See how Parminder Nagra and other celebs are prepping for their babies
Us first broke the news last December that Nagra, 33, was expecting.
"We are thrilled and overjoyed at the prospect of becoming first time parents," she told Us at the time.
See pics from Parminder Nagra's baby shower
A month later, Nagra and Stenson, a photographer, tied the knot.
The series finale of ER aired this past April.
 
I really liked the series finale of ER and hope we'll see Parminder back on screen soon.
 
She looks gorgeous at her baby shower. Red really suits her.
 
She looked GORGEOUS at her baby shower. I'm so happy for her and her husband. :heart:

She has been one of my favorite actress since she joined E.R. I can't believe her career hasn't sky-rocketed (sp?) like Keira Knightleys did. But I sincerely hope Parminder will get the lead role in a fantastic TV show or do a whole bunch of great films.
 
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2009/mar/09/parminder-nagra

'I've had such a blast'

As ER comes to an end, Parminder Nagra tells John Patterson why America loves British swearwords - and why she's now getting into bed with Ray Winstone

Parminder Nagra is eating her full-monty American diner-style breakfast with the enthusiasm of the several-months pregnant. It's a chilly morning in Los Angeles - it'll be 80F by lunchtime, though - and she is wrapped up warm, exhibiting little of the blazing-eyed defiance and vulnerability that is her staple as an actor. She is excellent company, with a healthy loud laugh, warming to such topics as exile, America versus the UK, and the changing fortunes of artists of Indian, Anglo-Indian and south Asian descent in the 21st century.

This spring, Nagra completes her six-year stint as trainee doctor Neela Rasgotra on ER, as the US drama, for 15 years the mainstay of NBC's Thursday night schedule, bows out. Now 33, Nagra joined the cast when she was just 26, the unknown star of the surprise smash Bend It Like Beckham. Much to her bemusement, her role in the girls-and-goals movie led to Fifa declaring her footballing personality of the year. The Leicester-born actor was a near total newcomer to LA and the US then; now she's a fully fledged local girl, with two dogs, a new house in the hills above Los Feliz, a list of good local Indian restaurants on the fridge, and a baby on the way, courtesy of her photographer husband.

"I've had such a blast," she says of her ER character, who's lost one husband to a roadside bomb in Iraq and a lover to a double amputation for which she was made to feel responsible. "I've been on it for about the same time as you might spend at college, six years - a large amount of time. About a month ago, I started to get quite emotional about it all coming to an end."
One thing she didn't really notice about her role when she started was how quietly groundbreaking it was for Indian actors in the US. "I didn't think much of it at the time, until I read articles people were writing: 'First mainstream Indian character on American network TV!' That's thrilling in itself, because the only other one at that time was Apu on The Simpsons, and I always had problems with his accent."

Try being part-Scottish in America, I say, and living through Groundskeeper Willie's horrible accent. "That's the thing with The Simpsons," she says. "You end up imitating the accent, even though you know it's wrong. That's how good that show is! Luckily for me, I was allowed to keep my own accent on ER, which was great, considering I was already going to have to learn these reams of medical terminology - it's almost like learning Shakespearean language."

Being Asian in the US is not quite the same as in the UK. There's no post-imperial umbilical connection, no established Asian political infrastructure, and relatively few Asian elected officials. Even the word has a different meaning: "Here it means, like, Chinese or Japanese. When I say I'm Asian, they go, 'Oh, you mean south Asian.' So I now know to say I'm south Asian. It's more specific, but in a way I like that more. And then the word Indian has a whole other set of complex historical meanings. I hate those forms you get at the doctors: 'What's your ethnicity? Indian subcontinent?' I have no idea how to answer this question."

This complexity was folded into her ER character right from the off. "They asked me, 'What, traditionally, would happen in this situation?' I said I'd just like to let this character play out without all that - try to see what any young twentysomething girl moving somewhere new is going to feel like. Of course, I have my heritage. It's not like I don't want to talk about it; it's such a part of me - but it's not two different identities, it's one and the same. Ever since then, the storylines I've had have usually been about the cases, not about - oh my God! - her traditional family background. I feel, even more so than the shows I did in England, that we've really nailed it: me being allowed to play a character for six seasons and not being stuck in this kind of political arena. Plus they love all those English swearwords like 'bollocks' and 'wanker'."

There are other differences between working in the US and the UK: "In England, it feels like there's a lot more material to be had. In terms of the British-Asian experience, we kept seeing things about arranged marriages, mixed-race relationships, with things imploding then ending well. There were more British Indians getting into it recently - writing their own work and getting it made - instead of other people writing what they thought those experiences were. America still has some catching up to do in that regard."
One of the pleasures of working on ER, she says, was its ensemble feel, the fact that cast and crew could move up through the ranks. "It's one of those rare places where they're very nurturing. Somebody who started as an assistant finally got his first episode made, which he wrote. That's amazing. I don't know how quickly that would happen in England: there's always some stumbling block. In England, there are fewer people deciding your fate, or whether something's any good. Here, the industry is a lot bigger and richer. There are more companies to go to, more decision-makers, more networks to approach."

Last year, Nagra returned home and took on a somewhat different role in an ITV drama called Compulsion. A modern-day rendering of Thomas Middleton's Jacobean tragedy The Changeling set among the British-Indian bourgeoisie, Compulsion was due to screen at Christmas but is now scheduled for May. Nagra has the prime role as the princessy, stone-hearted daughter of a successful businessman, who uses the family chauffeur/henchman, played by Ray Winstone, to get rid of the bore she's arranged to be married to. She then finds she quite likes being evil, and is more than slightly turned on by this brute she's always despised. There is a lot of sex.

"When the script turned up, there was a lot of very heightened sexuality in it, and the arranged marriage thing again. But knowing Ray was in it, I thought, 'I can't just get stuck on that.' As I read further, I thought, 'Oh my God, this is an awful person!' I kept reading, looking for some redeeming feature. Most characters I get, there's some light at the end of the tunnel, but with this one there was nothing. I started to like it for that reason." And working with Ray Winstone? "Now there's someone who sticks with his accent - even when he's playing Henry VIII!"

How about all those sex scenes? "We couldn't stop laughing. We mainly talked about food - 'I wonder if it's shepherd's pie for lunch today?' - even in the middle of these sizzling clinches. You really mark it out, then say, 'Tell me when you're running and we'll just go for it.' It's very awkward at the best of times, but Ray's great with women. He has to be. He's surrounded by women at home: wife, three daughters - no peace."

We finish by talking about Obama's presidency ("best soap opera ever") and Jhumpa Lahiri's novel The Namesake, about Bengali immigrants in New York, which was made into a movie by Mira Nair in 2006. "That film is so right about what it's like being an immigrant, constantly adapting all the time, parent or child. You end up respecting the parents for what they went through and what they sacrificed. They came from India to make a new life. I can relate to that in that I made a move over here. But I had a great job and I speak the language. And I wouldn't have had that if my mum hadn't moved to England."
 
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http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/cele...-winstone-i-went-for-it-bosh-115875-21316143/

Parminder Nagra hit our screens seven years ago in Brit flick Bend It Like Beckham alongside a very young and then-unknown Keira Knightley.

Thankfully, Parminder didn’t disappear after her film debut – quite the opposite. She turned herself into one of America’s hottest TV actresses. She traded in Keira for Clooney and for the last six years has starred in C4’s hit show ER, while living a luxurious life in her fancy pad in Beverly Hills.

And that’s not all – she’s managed that difficult work/life balance and met the man of her dreams, married him and is now expecting their baby. As she chats to us on the phone from LA, she’s super-excited: ‘Everything in my life has led to this moment.’

But that’s not to say we’ve lost her to LA forever. In fact, just before she fell pregnant she returned to the UK to film her latest British offering, Compulsion, a dark ITV1 drama about the overwhelming power of sexual obsession. It sees her appear alongside acting legend Ray Winstone.

It’s easy to forget she is now a huge star as she chats to me on the phone from LA – her Midlands accent seeps into conversation in between sips of tea.

‘I looked at the script and the thing that really did it for me was working with Ray,’ says Parminder of her return to the British screen. ‘That was a huge part of it. I mean, what an opportunity. We had dinner together, which was nice, and we were just laughing our heads off within the first five minutes. It broke the ice for the steamy scenes ahead!’

Parminder plays a rich student whose traditional Indian father is mapping out an arranged marriage for his beloved daughter, much to her horror. The family chauffeur, Don Flowers, played by Ray, offers her a way out if she will agree to sleep with him and the scene is set for a powerful, sexually charged affair which ultimately ends in tragedy.

The role called for sex scenes and nudity, which Parminder approached with a cool head. Thankfully, it was filmed before she got pregnant – so no embarrassing bumps and wobbly bits. But still, stripping off in front of a room full of cameramen wasn’t a moment she exactly cherished.

‘I was worried about the nudity, it’s a huge thing for me, but those scenes have to be in there because the story is about obsession and lust so you can’t do it without them. So we just got on with the sex scenes. It’s funny,’ she says, giggling, ‘you talk about what position you’re going for and then you just go for it. Most of the time, Ray and I talked about food, I don’t know why, but we always ended up telling each other what we’d had for dinner! It took our minds off it. You do get nervous, but when you’ve been doing them for a while, the only way is just to tackle it. Or as Ray says, “Bosh!”, and then you’re done!’

It seems Parminder is prone to her leading men sending her into fits of giggles. While filming the last episode of ER (the show finishes this June after 15 years), she struggled to contain herself on set with a certain very-handsome, very-famous someone.

‘George Clooney is just a lovely guy,’ says Parminder. ‘On set, my co-star Linda Cardellini (who plays nurse Samantha) and I are supposed to be really sombre when he walks in, but we could never hide our grins... The director told us to take down our joy at seeing George by a few notches. It was an absolute pleasure. Finally, I can say I’ve done a scene with George Clooney.’

She chats about her final days as Dr Neela Rasgotra on ER, admitting the wrap was a bit of a tear-jerker...

‘Everyone turned up for the last day, there were many speeches, and then the next day it was over. It still doesn’t feel quite real. My purpose for coming to LA was to be in ER, so it will be interesting to see what it’s like to be here and not have that any more.’

Although Parminder hit her big-time in Hollywood, she admits she’s not one to hang out with the glitterati. Despite rising to stardom alongside Keira Knightley all those years ago, the pair’s relationship didn’t grow into anything more. ‘I bumped into her once in LA and we talked about meeting up but it never happened,’ says Parminder. ‘She is so busy and so am I.’

After years working her way up in LA-LA land, Parminder is now happy to put home life first. She has wonderful memories of her wedding to her British photographer husband James Stenson in January at their home in Beverly Hills. ‘We had an absolute ball,’ she says. ‘It was a nice little family affair. Everyone had a really good time. We had tons of Bhangra and I wasn’t sure if everyone would want to dance to it, being that it was mainly English and American guests, as well as my family. But that was the music that no one could stop dancing to. Everybody went crazy. They were taking Bhangra lessons from my brothers and they all wanted a mix of the CD. Hopefully I bought a whole lot of Indian flavour to their lives.’

Then of course, came the baby news. The couple know what sex it is but she and James are keeping mum. She’s determined to enjoy the last month of her pregnancy [the baby is due in June] – seeing as her first few months weren’t so easy. ‘I had nausea which lasted all day long,’ she recalls. ‘The only way to combat it was to eat toast and lemon drops. The tiredness was hard at first because you can’t tell anyone. I was working so I would disappear and have a nap at lunchtime. ER was tiring to work on and people assumed I just needed a break.’

When news of the baby hit the family home in Leicester, there were lots of smiles, but she adds, ‘I don’t think it came as much of a surprise. Everybody said, “Finally!” It worked out perfectly with the show ending, the wedding and the pregnancy.’ As for what’s going to happen once the baby arrives, Parminder says, ‘We are both going to see how it goes. I said to James, this is the first time I actually understand the meaning of going with the flow! I’ve tentatively talked to my agent about going back to work in September or October, after four months at home, but I could look at that baby and say, “I want to stay at home!”’

Body-conscious LA has not dented Parminder’s passion for food
‘I love Indian food, I’m always making curries at home and could never go on a diet and give them up,’ she says. ‘There are a couple of good Indian restaurants in LA we go to. I see people get obsessed by food, watching every morsel they eat. You can get like that, but in my job, I need energy and stamina. I’m no good to anybody if I eat a burger every day, even though I’d love a burger a day, so I might have one every two weeks instead. There is an attitude in this business of wanting people to look a certain way, and if it’s for a role, you have to hear what’s being said. But even if I wanted to, I couldn’t go rake thin, it’s not my way. I love sushi, which is healthy but I also love sweet stuff too and that’s my downfall. I don’t beat myself up – everything in moderation is a good way to live. I’m just trying to be as fit and healthy as I can.’
Compulsion is on ITV1, tomorrow, 9pm
 

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