Background
Her mother Gairika Gupta was an Indian classically trained dancer, and her father Tapan Gupta was a singer.
Her mother Gairika Gupta was an Indian classically trained dancer, and her father Tapan Gupta was a singer.
After attending Mill Hill School in London, Gupta graduated from Oxford University with a Modern History degree.
Apart from her work for the theatre, she has also written scripts for television and radio plays. She is also related to the Indian revolutionary Dinesh Gupta, whose brother was Tanika"s grandfather. After Oxford, her political commitment found expression in her work for an Asian women"s refuge in Manchester.
The Waiting Room (2000) was a career highpoint, enjoyed by blue-rinses as well as by Asian audiences.
Gupta is rumoured to be writing a new play for Birmingham Repertory Theatre"s Youth Theatre, The Young Revue d’Economie Politique, to be performed in June 2009. She is currently writing a play for the Young Representative, for a group called and New Writing.
In 2013, her play The Empress, about Abdul Karim and Queen Victoria opened in Stratford upon Avon. Foreign the British Broadcasting Corporation"s Grange Hill series, Gupta wrote seven episodes between 1997 and 2000.
In 2008, Gupta was appointed a Member of the British Empire (Administration Member of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2008 New Year Honours for her services to drama.