Balvinder Sopal is certainly a survivor on this series of Strictly Come Dancing, with the EastEnders actress and her pro partner, Julian Caillon, surviving three dance-offs so far, including on last week’s Halloween special. The actress will no doubt be hoping that her Couple Choice’s this weekend will manage to impress viewers and keep her safe. But what do you know about the actress who has been on our screens since 2002? Read on to find out all you need to know about the soap favourite…
Career
Balvinder, 46, made her professional debut in BBC series Kidhaar!, where she played Reena. The star picked up credits in White Girl and Coming Up, before landing an on/off role in Emmerdale. Balvinder also appeared in shows like Waterloo Road, Coronation Street and Hollyoaks, before landing her biggest role to date as Suki Panesar in EastEnders in 2020.
Suki has been part of the soap opera’s biggest storylines, including a coercive control relationship with the character’s abusive husband, Nish (Navin Chowdhry), homophobic attitudes towards her daughter Ash’s (Gurlaine Kaur Garcha) bisexuality, before discovering her own homosexuality and embarking on a relationship with Eve Unwin (Heather Pearce). Suki was also a part of the show’s ‘The Six’ storyline, a whodunnit broadcast in 2023, which hinted at a murder on the show’s annual Christmas episode.
Balvinder’s portrayal of Suki has won her plaudits, with the actress walking away with six awards, including from Digital Spy, the Asian Media Awards, the Radio Times and the Inside Soap Awards. She has also been nominated at the National Television Awards.
Despite her awards, in 2022, Balvinder confessed that she had never dreamed of appearing on the broadcaster’s flagship soap. Speaking to KentLive, she said: “EastEnders was never a dream, it kind of just happened. I was doing a theatre job and Eastenders came to me and my agent and asked if I’d be interested in auditioning. I looked at it and on paper thought that Suki Panesar looked amazing, who doesn’t want to play a villain? So then I did my self-tape and the rest is history.”
© CREDIT LINE:BBC/Jack Barns/Kieron McCarronThe star has played Suki Panesar since 2020
Private life
Although Suki is one of the biggest characters on EastEnders, Balvinder keeps a lot of her life away from the public eye, and it’s not known whether the star is married or if she has children. The actress was born in Gillingham, Kent, in 1978 and is the eldest of four.
In 2024, she sadly lost her mother, Nirmal, and in a touching tribute, she said: “As we told people, the one thing constant in people’s memory was Mum’s huge warm smile, her ability to adapt to change and show love and respect to all.” She also admitted that she thought her late mother would be proud of her Strictly stint, sharing: “This is her dream. Actually, I think she would have been extremely proud. So, yeah, hold mum’s legacy.“
© InstagramThe actress lost her mother in recent years
The star is proud of her life in Kent, with Grazia reporting her as saying: “I love where I come from. It’s taken me a while to really appreciate how creatively diverse Medway and surrounding areas in Kent are. Sure, some places aren’t as beautiful, affluent or full of rows of quaint little coffee shops, but it is full of heart, and it’s where I grew up. It’s where I come from.”
