Television and film Wadia first came to prominence in
BBC sketch show
Goodness Gracious Me, playing characters such as Mrs "I can make it at home for nothing!" and one half of
The Competitive Mothers. She took over from her
Goodness Gracious Me co-star,
Meera Syal, in the role of Rupinder in the sitcom
All About Me alongside
Jasper Carrott and
Natalia Kills. In 2007, Wadia was cast as
Zainab Masood in the long-running
BBC soap opera
EastEnders. Her last appearance as Zainab in
EastEnders was on 8 February 2013. She also had a minor role in
EastEnders in 1994, playing a nurse named Viv who treated
Michelle Fowler (
Susan Tully) when she was hospitalised with a gunshot wound. She also appears as Zainab in the 2010 spin-off
EastEnders: E20. Wadia has also made several guest appearances in various British comedies and dramas, such as
2point4 Children,
The Vicar of Dibley,
Thin Ice Chambers,
Holby City,
Murder in Mind,
Doctors and
New Tricks. She was a regular presenter on the
ITV topical chat show,
Loose Women (2005–2006). Wadia also appeared in the
E4 teen drama
Skins, playing the mother of
Anwar Kharral, and, in March 2008, she appeared in the
BBC Three drama
West 10 LDN. Wadia played the wedding caterer in the comedy film
Bend It Like Beckham. She played a role as the housekeeper in the film ''
I Can't Think Straight, directed by Shamim Sarif. The film revolves about two women from Indian and Palestinian upper-class immigrant communities in the UK who fall in love, and Wadia is the housekeeper who rebels at her high-handed Palestinian employer in small ways. She also had a minor part in the film Code 46 (2003). She starred in a BFI/BBC film Sixth Happiness along with Firdaus Kanga in 1997. The film explores sexuality, disability and the Parsees, a small westernised minority in India, of which Wadia herself is a member. She has also starred alongside Rishi Kapoor playing his wife in a Bollywood film titled Namaste London. She voices the title role in Ethelbert the Tiger'' – a children's programme. She also had a role in
Doctor Who as a doctor in the episode "
The Eleventh Hour". In July 2013, Wadia appeared in
All Star Mr & Mrs. In September 2013, she appeared in ITV's ''
Big Star's Little Star. Since December 2013, Wadia has starred in Still Open All Hours as Mrs Hussein. In January 2015, it was announced that Wadia would have a guest role in Holby City, as an established neurosurgeon Annabelle Cooper. The role will be for five episodes. In April 2017, she appeared as Khadija in Finding Fatimah, a British romantic comedy. In 2019, as a last minute casting call, and in "More of a Cameo" as Wadia said, she played the minor part of "Zulla" in the live action remake of Aladdin directed by Guy Ritchie. In 2020, she appeared in the role of Anna Masani in the ninth season of the popular BBC drama series Death in Paradise. Also in 2020, she had a small part in the fifteen minute drama Isolation Stories'' alongside
Sheridan Smith which was filmed via
webcam due to the
COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom. From September 2021, Wadia was a contestant for the
nineteenth series of
Strictly Come Dancing, paired with professional dancer
Neil Jones. The couple were the first to be eliminated, in the second week. In February 2023, Wadia appeared in an episode of
BBC Four's
Spring Walks, exploring
Swaledale in North Yorkshire. Then in April 2023, she appeared as
Binita Prabhu in the BBC soap opera
Doctors.
Stage and radio Apart from the original radio version of
Goodness Gracious Me, Wadia's other radio work includes guesting on ''
Parsons and Naylor's Pull-Out Sections, as well as regular appearances in the BBC World Service soap opera Westway as the pharmacist Namita ul-Haq. In 2001, Wadia voiced the role of Ariel in a BBC Radio 3 production of The Tempest''. In 2002, she was due to star in the
Royal Shakespeare Company's production of ''
Midnight's Children'', based on
Salman Rushdie's novel, but she quit only weeks before rehearsals were due to begin. In December 2023 - January 2024, for Christmas and New Year, she made her
pantomime debut playing Fairy Sugarsnap in
Jack and the Beanstalk at the
York Theatre Royal from Friday 8 December 2023 to Sunday 7 January 2024. ==Personal life==