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Ambika Mod
British actress, comedian, and writer (born 1995) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Ambika Bhakti Mod (/ˈʌmbɪkə ˈbʌkti ˈmoʊd/; born 2 October 1995)[1][2] is a British actress, comedian, and writer. She is best known for her roles in the BBC drama series This Is Going to Hurt (2022) and the Netflix miniseries One Day (2024), for which she gained wider recognition. She has since starred in the thriller series The Stolen Girl (2025) for Disney+.
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Early life and education
Mod grew up in Potters Bar, Hertfordshire.[3] She is the daughter of Indian immigrants; her mother arrived in the UK as a child, and her father in his 20s.[4] Mod attended Dame Alice Owen's School.[5] She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Studies from St Mary's College, Durham.[6]
Early in her career, Mod worked as a personal assistant at Condé Nast as her day job while doing comedy at night.[4][7] She studied acting at Theatrix Performing Arts of St Albans, based at the Abbey Theatre, St Albans. At Durham, she did sketch comedy through the university's Revue,[8] performing with Tom Harper at the 2015 Edinburgh Fringe Festival and serving as the troupe's president in 2017.[9] She formed a duo, Megan from HR, with Andrew Shires.[10][11] She performs regularly at improvised comedy theatre The Free Association in London.[12]
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Career
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After appearing in a series of short films—Fair Bnb, Granddaughter, The Sacrifice (aka Leila Margot), and Pet Name—Mod was cast as Shruti Acharya, a struggling junior doctor opposite Ben Whishaw in This Is Going to Hurt (2022), a medical drama based on Adam Kay's memoir of the same name.[13][14] The series earned unanimous acclaim from critics;[15] Daniel Fienberg of The Hollywood Reporter described Mod as the standout among the "regular female characters", praising how she turned Shruti's "earnest fragility into the show’s true heart". However, he also noted that the character often functioned primarily as a vehicle for Kay's actions.[16] For her performance, Mod was selected for the 2022 BAFTA Breakthrough cohort and won the Broadcasting Press Guild Award for Best Actress.[17][18] Through the BAFTA programme, she met Emma Thompson, who later became her mentor.[19]
I think part of the reason why I just didn't see myself playing that part was because insidiously and implicitly, that's a message that I’ve been fed my entire life—that people who look like me aren't romantic leads, that people who look like me aren't the people who the male romantic lead will fall in love with.
—Mod, 2024[20]
In 2024, Mod starred as Emma Morley in Netflix's One Day, adapted from David Nicholls' novel of the same name.[21] The series follows two young people (played by Mod and Leo Woodall) who reconnect annually over 14 years after a one-night stand. Mod initially declined the role, as the emotionally demanding nature of her performance in This Is Going to Hurt left her doubting her ability to take on a romantic lead.[22] Her portrayal, however, earned widespread critical acclaim and marked a major breakthrough in her career.[23][24] Upon release, One Day became the most-watched Netflix series worldwide that week.[25] Writing for The Guardian, Chitra Ramaswamy described Mod as a "revelation", and found it "hard to believe this is her first lead role".[26] Reflecting on her character's change in ethnicity from the book and earlier film adaptation, Mod expressed hope that it would "open people’s minds a little bit," acknowledging its significance for "a lot of people, especially young women of colour, young South Asian women in particular".[27]
In 2025, Mod had supporting roles in the action films Black Bag and Sacrifice.[28][29] In the Disney+ thriller series The Stolen Girl, Mod starred as a journalist attempting to locate a missing girl. Emily Godwin of The Evening Standard considered Mod to be the series' prime asset but The Guardian's Lucy Mangan found the plot to be too contingent on her character's "borderline clairvoyant powers".[30][31]
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In 2024, Mod was included in the Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe list under the Entertainment category, recognised for her advocacy for greater industry representation and her performances in This Is Going to Hurt and One Day.[32] The Sunday Times named Mod one of the 25 most inspiring people aged 30 and under in the UK and Ireland.[33] Later that year, Mod was featured on Time's annual TIME100 Next list of emerging leaders shaping the future, with Mindy Kaling writing: "It feels like there’s nothing to make you sit up, lean forward, and say, 'Wow, I’ve never seen that before.' But that’s exactly how I felt when I saw Ambika Mod in [...] One Day."[34]
Mod was also named one of Harper's Bazaar UK's 2024 Women of the Year, receiving the Breakthrough of the Year award.[35][36] In November 2024, she received one of British GQ's Men of the Year awards.[37] In February 2025, Mod was included in Elle's 40 For 40: Women in Film and Television list, described as a "power list of the women who’ll shape the coming decades in film and television." Author Hanna Flint wrote: "Ambika is a rising star in television [...] she’s reshaping what it means to be a leading lady."[38] In September 2025, she signed an open pledge with Film Workers for Palestine, committing not to collaborate with Israeli film institutions "that are implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people."[39]
Acting credits
| † | Denotes film or TV productions that have not yet been released |
Film
Television
Theatre
Audio
Other television appearances
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Awards and nominations
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References
External links
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