Sanjeev Kohli
Encyclopedia
Sanjeev Singh Kohli is a Scottish Asian
comedian, writer and actor. He is most famous for his role as Navid Harrid in the sitcom Still Game
and as Rajesh Majhu in the radio sitcom Fags, Mags and Bags
.
to a social worker and a teacher, who had come to the United Kingdom
in the 1960s from India. When he was three years old, they moved to Scotland
.
Kohli's parents could afford to move him, aged six, and his brothers out of state schooling to be educated by the feepaying Jesuits
at St. Aloysius College
, a Roman Catholic school in central Glasgow. To finance their family through private school, Kohli's parents ran an Indian corner shop.
He went on to Glasgow University, studying medicine, but changed course to study Maths, gaining a first class degree, and subsequently studied for a PhD.
for Channel 4
, co-written by his brother Hardeep, as Surjit Magoon and has appeared in several episodes of the BBC
comedy series Look Around You
as Synthesiser Patel. He was the former presenter of the BBC's Asian Network
and has previously written for Goodness Gracious Me
, The Big Breakfast
and Chewin' the Fat
, which was also written by future Still Game co-stars, Ford Kiernan
and Greg Hemphill
.
In December 2006, the Sunday Mail
revealed that Kohli would be starring in the major ITV
thriller, Losing Gemma
. Starring alongside Alice Eve
, he played "a member of the British High Commission, who helps a young English tourist jailed in Delhi, India
". Kohli revealed in 2007 that he would be working on a radio comedy
project for BBC Radio 4
, entitled Fags, Mags and Bags
. The series was broadcast in 2008 and was nominated for a Sony Award. The Daily Record
also revealed Kohli would be writing for ITV children's show, My Life as a Popat
. Kohli has also starred in BBC Three
's Rush Hour
as an intolerant taxicab driver, and on the same channel in Phoo Action
as a television news presenter
.
On August 21, 2007, he presented a show called 10 Things To Hate About The Edinburgh Festival
. Kohli also sometimes appears as a pundit on BBC One Scotland's Saturday afternoon Sportscene
football programme. Kohli made a brief cameo in a speaking role as himself in an episode of BBC's VideoGaiden
, where he received a fish in the mail as a gift from the hosts in an attempt to recreate the Nintendo
game Animal Crossing
. One of the hosts was Robert Florence
, a writer whom Kohli worked with on Chewin' the Fat
.
In February 2008, it was announced that he would play the role of God in the video for Glasgow band Attic Lights
single 'God'
In 2011, Sanjeev appeared on Scottish tea-time magazine show, The Hour on STV. He co-hosted on two separate weeks (ten episodes), alongside main presenter Michelle McManus
.
and had his licence to rent out a property in the city suspended for two years due to safety concerns. The Kohli family have a very successful business in property in Scotland. In January 2007, Kohli commented on the accusations of severe racism on Celebrity Big Brother
. He told of an incident in which a former boss called him "Mahatma", in reference to Gandhi
.
He also caused controversy when he criticised the comedy output of Scottish radio. In 2008, he said to The Sunday Times
that "The stuff on Radio Scotland
just now is just woeful, I actually can't listen to it because it's so pedestrian and monochromatic. It just doesn't have any comedy sensibility. So it can be quite crippling to work in comedy here". BBC Radio Scotland head Jeff Zycinski replied to these criticisms by saying "We are committed to launching lots of new comedy over the next year with new writers, performers and producers. The comedy is coming from a wide variety of sources, both independent and in-house. Not all comedy pleases everybody."
with his wife, Fiona, and their three children.
He has two elder brothers — Randeep Singh Kohli (1966), the highest ranking Sikh policeman in the UK force, who is one of three deputies to the chief inspector of Scotland Yard, and Hardeep Singh Kohli
(1969), who is also a journalist and broadcaster.
Asian-Scots
Asian-Scots or Scottish Asians is a term used for people of South Asian ancestry who were born in Scotland, or for South Asian immigrants....
comedian, writer and actor. He is most famous for his role as Navid Harrid in the sitcom Still Game
Still Game
Still Game is a Scottish sitcom, produced by The Comedy Unit with the BBC. It was created by Ford Kiernan and Greg Hemphill, who play the lead characters - two Glaswegian pensioners, named Jack Jarvis and Victor McDade respectively....
and as Rajesh Majhu in the radio sitcom Fags, Mags and Bags
Fags, Mags and Bags
Fags, Mags and Bags is a Scottish radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4. Its first series was nominated for a Sony Radio Award.The writers, Sanjeev Kohli and Donald McLeary, received a Writers Guild Award in November 2008 for Radio Comedy of the Year....
.
Early life
Kohli was born in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
to a social worker and a teacher, who had come to the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
in the 1960s from India. When he was three years old, they moved to Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
.
Kohli's parents could afford to move him, aged six, and his brothers out of state schooling to be educated by the feepaying Jesuits
Society of Jesus
The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...
at St. Aloysius College
St. Aloysius' College, Glasgow
St. Aloysius' College is a selective fee-paying independent Jesuit school in Glasgow, Scotland. It was founded in 1859, and named after the famous Jesuit, Aloysius Gonzaga. Its strong Jesuit ethos emphasises practice of the Roman Catholic faith both in the church and in the community, with many...
, a Roman Catholic school in central Glasgow. To finance their family through private school, Kohli's parents ran an Indian corner shop.
He went on to Glasgow University, studying medicine, but changed course to study Maths, gaining a first class degree, and subsequently studied for a PhD.
Career
Kohli starred in Meet the MagoonsMeet the Magoons
Meet the Magoons is a six part comedy television series in the United Kingdom aired on Channel 4 in 2005, directed by and starring Hardeep Singh Kohli. The main characters are a Punjabi family who live in Glasgow, and own an Indian restaurant called "The Spice".It received mixed reviews. A. A...
for Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
, co-written by his brother Hardeep, as Surjit Magoon and has appeared in several episodes of the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
comedy series Look Around You
Look Around You
Look Around You is a British television comedy series devised and written by Robert Popper and Peter Serafinowicz, and, in the first series, narrated by Nigel Lambert...
as Synthesiser Patel. He was the former presenter of the BBC's Asian Network
BBC Asian Network
BBC Asian Network is a British radio station serving those originating from and around the Indian subcontinent. The music and news comes out of the main urban areas where there are significant communities with these backgrounds. The station has production centres in Birmingham, Leicester and London...
and has previously written for Goodness Gracious Me
Goodness Gracious Me (TV & radio)
Goodness Gracious Me is a BBC English language sketch comedy show originally on BBC Radio 4 and later televised on BBC Two based on four British Indian actors: Sanjeev Bhaskar, Kulvinder Ghir, Meera Syal and Nina Wadia...
, The Big Breakfast
The Big Breakfast
The Big Breakfast was a British light entertainment television show shown on Channel 4 and S4C each weekday morning from 28 September 1992 until 29 March 2002 during which period 2,482 shows were produced. The Big Breakfast was produced by Planet 24, the production company co-owned by former...
and Chewin' the Fat
Chewin' the Fat
Chewin' the Fat is a Scottish comedy sketch show, starring Ford Kiernan, Greg Hemphill and Karen Dunbar. Comedians Paul Riley and Mark Cox also appeared regularly on the show.Chewin' the Fat first started as a radio series on BBC Radio Scotland...
, which was also written by future Still Game co-stars, Ford Kiernan
Ford Kiernan
Ford John Kiernan is a Scottish actor and comedian. Along with his comedy partner, Greg Hemphill, he is best known in the United Kingdom for his appearances in Still Game and Chewin' The Fat.-Personal life:...
and Greg Hemphill
Greg Hemphill
Gregory "Greg" Hemphill is a Scottish actor and comedian. He has also presented on television and radio. Along with his comedy partner, Ford Kiernan, he is best known in the United Kingdom for his appearances in Still Game and Chewin' the Fat.-Personal life:Hemphill was born in Glasgow, Scotland,...
.
In December 2006, the Sunday Mail
Sunday Mail (Scotland)
The Sunday Mail is a Scottish tabloid newspaper published every Sunday. It is the sister paper of the Daily Record and is owned by Trinity Mirror and as such has a left-wing outlook which in turn tends to guide Scottish political debate in that direction.The Sunday Mail is read by over one million...
revealed that Kohli would be starring in the major ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
thriller, Losing Gemma
Losing Gemma
Losing Gemma is a two part British television drama based on the debut novel by Katy Gardner. The series was written by Robert Murphy, was directed by Maurice Phillips and starred Jonas Armstrong, Alice Eve, Jason Flemyng and Rachel Leskovac...
. Starring alongside Alice Eve
Alice Eve
Alice Sophia Eve is an English actress. She is known for her lead in She's Out of My League and also appeared in Sex and the City 2. She will also star in the up-coming The Decoy Bride and Men in Black III.- Early life :...
, he played "a member of the British High Commission, who helps a young English tourist jailed in Delhi, India
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
". Kohli revealed in 2007 that he would be working on a radio comedy
Radio comedy
Radio comedy, or comedic radio programming, is a radio broadcast that may involve sitcom elements, sketches and various types of comedy found on other media. It may also include more surreal or fantastic elements, as these can be conveyed on a small budget with just a few sound effects or some...
project for BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
, entitled Fags, Mags and Bags
Fags, Mags and Bags
Fags, Mags and Bags is a Scottish radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4. Its first series was nominated for a Sony Radio Award.The writers, Sanjeev Kohli and Donald McLeary, received a Writers Guild Award in November 2008 for Radio Comedy of the Year....
. The series was broadcast in 2008 and was nominated for a Sony Award. The Daily Record
Daily Record (Scotland)
The Daily Record is a Scottish tabloid newspaper based in Glasgow. It had been the best-selling daily paper in Scotland for many years with a paid circulation in August 2011 of 307,794 . It is now outsold by its arch-rival the Scottish Sun which in September 2010 had a circulation of 339,586 in...
also revealed Kohli would be writing for ITV children's show, My Life as a Popat
My Life as a Popat
My Life as a Popat follows the lives of an Indian family, through the eyes of their eldest son, Anand. The teenager fights a daily basis full of embarrassment. The second series brings a change to storyline, with brainbox Chetan Popat sometimes taking centre stage...
. Kohli has also starred in BBC Three
BBC Three
BBC Three is a television network from the BBC broadcasting via digital cable, terrestrial, IPTV and satellite platforms. The channel's target audience includes those in the 16-34 year old age group, and has the purpose of providing "innovative" content to younger audiences, focusing on new talent...
's Rush Hour
Rush Hour (TV series)
Rush Hour is a sketch show made by Zeppotron and shown on BBC Three during March and April 2007. The show featured several sketches centred around characters travelling to work, school or otherwise, therefore many of the sketches took place inside a car or bus. Several cult and up and coming...
as an intolerant taxicab driver, and on the same channel in Phoo Action
Phoo Action
Phoo Action is a BBC Three 60 minute TV pilot, one of six drama pilots that were transmitted in early 2008, and was first broadcast on February 12, 2008 at 21:00 UTC. Phoo Action is based on the Jamie Hewlett created strip 'Get The Freebies' which ran in The Face from June 1996 to June 1997...
as a television news presenter
News presenter
A news presenter is a person who presents news during a news program in the format of a television show, on the radio or the Internet.News presenters can work in a radio studio, television studio and from remote broadcasts in the field especially weather...
.
On August 21, 2007, he presented a show called 10 Things To Hate About The Edinburgh Festival
Edinburgh Festival
The Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for many arts and cultural festivals that take place in Edinburgh, Scotland each summer, mostly in August...
. Kohli also sometimes appears as a pundit on BBC One Scotland's Saturday afternoon Sportscene
Sportscene
Sportscene is the name of a range of Scottish sports television programmes produced by BBC Scotland. Its main anchors are Dougie Donnelly, David Currie, Rob MacLean and Dougie Vipond, with Alison Walker and Richard Gordon acting as relief presenters...
football programme. Kohli made a brief cameo in a speaking role as himself in an episode of BBC's VideoGaiden
VideoGaiden
VideoGaiden is a Scottish computer games television show broadcast by BBC Scotland. Its creators and presenters, Robert Florence and Ryan Macleod, are responsible for the internet-distributed videogaming show Consolevania, upon which the show is based...
, where he received a fish in the mail as a gift from the hosts in an attempt to recreate the Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
game Animal Crossing
Animal Crossing
The Animal Crossing games have garnered positive response. The first three games are among the best-selling for their respective consoles. Animal Crossing has sold 2.321 million copies; Wild World 10.79 million; and City Folk 3.38 million...
. One of the hosts was Robert Florence
Robert Florence
Robert Florence is a Scottish presenter, comedian and writer from Glasgow, Scotland, best known for starring in the popular BBC comedy sketch show Burnistoun, and the video-game review shows Consolevania and Videogaiden. He was a core writer of Chewin' the Fat and with Iain Connell wrote the...
, a writer whom Kohli worked with on Chewin' the Fat
Chewin' the Fat
Chewin' the Fat is a Scottish comedy sketch show, starring Ford Kiernan, Greg Hemphill and Karen Dunbar. Comedians Paul Riley and Mark Cox also appeared regularly on the show.Chewin' the Fat first started as a radio series on BBC Radio Scotland...
.
In February 2008, it was announced that he would play the role of God in the video for Glasgow band Attic Lights
Attic Lights
Attic Lights are an indie rock band from Glasgow, Scotland, formed in 2005 by Kevin Sherry , Colin McArdle and Jamie Houston , later joined by Tim Davidson and Noel O'Donnell...
single 'God'
In 2011, Sanjeev appeared on Scottish tea-time magazine show, The Hour on STV. He co-hosted on two separate weeks (ten episodes), alongside main presenter Michelle McManus
Michelle McManus
Michelle McManus is a Scottish singer-songwriter, actress, radio DJ and television presenter, who rose to fame after winning the second series of the UK talent show Pop Idol....
.
Controversy
In 2005 Kohli was reprimanded by Glasgow City CouncilPolitics of Glasgow
Politics in Glasgow, Scotland, is evident in the deliberations and decisions of the city council of Glasgow , in elections to the council, and in elections to the Scottish Parliament and the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom .In the European Parliament, the city area is...
and had his licence to rent out a property in the city suspended for two years due to safety concerns. The Kohli family have a very successful business in property in Scotland. In January 2007, Kohli commented on the accusations of severe racism on Celebrity Big Brother
Celebrity Big Brother 2007 (UK)
Celebrity Big Brother 2007 was the highly controversial fifth series of the United Kingdom reality television series Celebrity Big Brother, a spin-off of Big Brother. The series was broadcast on Channel 4 in the UK , and involved a number of celebrities referred to as 'housemates', who live in the...
. He told of an incident in which a former boss called him "Mahatma", in reference to Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi , pronounced . 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement...
.
He also caused controversy when he criticised the comedy output of Scottish radio. In 2008, he said to The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times is a British Sunday newspaper.The Sunday Times may also refer to:*The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times...
that "The stuff on Radio Scotland
BBC Radio Scotland
BBC Radio Scotland is BBC Scotland's national English-language radio network. It broadcasts a wide variety of programming, including news, sport, light entertainment, music, the arts, comedy, drama, history and lifestyle...
just now is just woeful, I actually can't listen to it because it's so pedestrian and monochromatic. It just doesn't have any comedy sensibility. So it can be quite crippling to work in comedy here". BBC Radio Scotland head Jeff Zycinski replied to these criticisms by saying "We are committed to launching lots of new comedy over the next year with new writers, performers and producers. The comedy is coming from a wide variety of sources, both independent and in-house. Not all comedy pleases everybody."
Personal life
Kohli currently lives in GlasgowGlasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
with his wife, Fiona, and their three children.
He has two elder brothers — Randeep Singh Kohli (1966), the highest ranking Sikh policeman in the UK force, who is one of three deputies to the chief inspector of Scotland Yard, and Hardeep Singh Kohli
Hardeep Singh Kohli
Hardeep Singh Kohli is a British writer and radio and television presenter.-Background:Kohli was born in London and moved to Glasgow in Scotland when he was four. His parents came to the UK from India in the 1960s. The family's roots lie in the Punjab. His mother was a social worker, and his...
(1969), who is also a journalist and broadcaster.