Sanjeev Bhaskar (born 31 October 1963) is a British actor, comedian and television presenter. He is best known for his work in the BBC Two sketch comedy series Goodness Gracious Me and as the star of the sitcom The Kumars at No. 42. He also presented and starred in a documentary series called India with Sanjeev Bhaskar in which he travelled to India and visited his ancestral home in today's Pakistan. Bhaskar's more dramatic acting roles include the lead role of Dr Prem Sharma in The Indian Doctor and a main role as DI Sunny Khan in Unforgotten. Bhaskar has been the Chancellor of the University of Sussex since 2009. In 2003, he was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy. In 2006, Bhaskar was awarded an OBE. Early life Bhaskar was born on 31 October 1963 in Ealing, London, to Inderjit and Janak Bhaskar, who came to the U.K. after the partition of India, and grew up living above the family launderette in Heston, Hounslow, Middlesex. He was raised in Hinduism. He earned a degree in marketing from Hatfield Polytechnic before landing a job as a marketing executive at IBM. Career Bhaskar soon realised that he preferred comedy to marketing and joined forces with an old college friend, Nitin Sawhney, to start a musical comedy double act called "The Secret Asians" which they first performed in 1996 at the now-defunct Tom Allen Arts Centre in East London. This performance was featured on a BBC magazine show called Reportage. They performed extensively also at the Watermans Arts Centre with numerous other acts at a regular Asian comedy night called "One Nation Under a Groove...Innit". Their real break came when they were performing a show at the Oval House venue in South London where, after a strong review in Time Out magazine by journalist and playwright Bonnie Greer, they were approached by Anil Gupta, the producer of what was to become the BBC sketch series Goodness Gracious Me. Bhaskar has starred in a number of British-produced films including The Guru and Anita and Me. He also had a cameo as a shop owner in Yash Raj Films' production Jhoom Barabar Jhoom. He had a major role in the 2019 film, Yesterday, in which he and his wife Meera Syal played a married couple. Bhaskar, the Kumars and Gareth Gates collectively released the official single