(April 11, 2024) Growing up playing with Barbie dolls that looked a certain way (Read white, blue eyes, and blonde hair), Ritu Arya never thought that she’d be playing the character on screen. However, there she was taking up the space as a South Asian actor playing the role of a famous Pulitzer prize-winning journalist and reporter who lives in Barbie Land. Living in England, she grew up watching people unlike her on the small and big screen.
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Representation in the 90s was so feeble that she noticed its sheer nonexistence while watching television at home. That’s when she decided to become the poster girl of diversity when she grew up. And the 35-year-old actor did that when she landed roles in series like Sherlock, Doctors, The Umbrella Academy and Red Notice. “Films contribute massively to shifting culture. They should inspire conversation,” said Ritu in an interview.
Following her dream
Entertainment while growing up in Guildford, England meant watching television, and Goodness Gracious Me, the British-Asian comedy show, was the first time she saw South Asians on screen. “Our family homes, stories about them, that allowed us to just poke fun at ourselves. It was brilliant.” Inspired, she along with her cousins would write her story and build characters. “I guess I felt seen from that.” Though she was keen to take up acting, conforming to the traditional norm of finishing a degree, she ended up studying astrophysics at Southampton University. However, her desire to act led her to enroll in the on-campus comedy society. However, she knew her heart was in acting and it was Google who came to her rescue. “I googled how to become an actor. The answer was drama school,” she added and went on to study acting and drama at Oxford School of Drama.
The big debut on TV
Switching from physics to acting was a journey but Ritu knew how to learn, and she remained curious and open to acting. She soon landed her first role in the British soap opera Doctors. The British-Indian actress smashed the ball out of the park in her debut and was nominated for the British Soap Award for Best Newcomer. While Ritu stayed on the show for four years, she expanded her horizon by making an appearance in the popular British crime TV series Sherlock. In 2016, she diversified with the sci-fi series Humans had her play the role of robot Flash.
Ritu Arya
While Arya was gaining popularity in the world of television, she exploded on the film circuit with the 2019 rom-com Last Christmas. The film starring Emilia Clarke and Henry Golding was a major commercial success with a box-office collection of $123.4 million.
But one big opportunity came knocking at her door in the form of an American superhero TV series The Umbrella Academy. Based on the comic book of the same name, it revolved around a dysfunctional family of adopted superhero siblings who reunite to solve the mystery behind their father’s death. To prep for the show, Arya, who played Lila Pitts, read all the comic books to get into the skin of the character, a wild card entry that the fans of the series cannot stop raving about. It’s her quirks and eccentricity in the Netflix show that catapulted Arya into the league of the best.
Such was the impact of her stellar performance that Ritu was soon roped in for Red Notice, a heist thriller alongside Hollywood action heavyweights like Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, and Gal Gadot. The actress plays an Interpol agent. “It’s such an incredible experience. I’m just so aware of what I can say and what I can’t! I’m so anxious! But it’s so fun, and I feel like I’m learning and growing so much,” she had said. Made on a budget of $130 million, the film was one of Netflix’s biggest investments.
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Representing South Asians
But it’s her role in the Oscar-nominated Barbie that’s challenging stereotypes like no one else and is making South Asians proud with strong representation. “Representation is a huge reason why I even got into acting. I was not seeing people that looked like me on my screen, and I thought, “Well, I’ll be the change” and that’s a huge motivation,” she said in an interview.
Ritu Arya has become a force to reckon with in the TV and film world but not without her struggle with racism. The British-Indian actress, who was bullied at her predominantly white school and was called all sorts of names, has always tried to empower herself to create change. In an interview with the Hindu, she said, “It drives me to push boundaries for women and people of colour, to gain further equality by taking up space and having a voice. I try not to complain, but rather lead by example. And always, always leading from love and compassion.”
The British-Indian actress has finally arrived—and how. Arya, who was keen to portray diversity, is taking every step toward her dream and smashing the glass ceiling one project at a time.
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Read a similar story of Namit Malhotra, from Garage Startup to Hollywood’s VFX Titan
