Jassa Ahluwalia

Jassa Ahluwalia is a British actor, writer, filmmaker and trade unionist. Born in Coventry to a white English mum and a brown Punjabi dad in 1990, he attended school in Leicester and was raised in an extended family environment. He spoke Enlish in the playground, Punjabi with his grandparents, and spent various summer holidays in India. He came to prominence as Rocky in the hit BBC Three series Some Girls, followed by starring roles in Unforgotten, Ripper Street, and Peaky Blinders.

Jassa created the hashtag #BothNotHalf to explore mixed identity in light of his own British-Indian heritage. His TEDx talk on 'How Language Shapes Identity' has clocked up over 180k views and his BBC One documentary Am I English? won an Asian Media Award in 2022.