Hi, everyone! Welcome, again, to 
purnima_fic. I'm glad to see some new members trickling in. Since one of the basic problems with focusing on characters and actors of South Asian origin is that many don't *know* what shows feature them, I thought it would be prudent to make a list that we can continuously add to!
Bollywood, obviously, speaks for itself, but I would love to get a round-up from popular American, Canadian and British TV shows, canceled or older series, book and movie fandoms, etc.
South Asian TV Characters
Saira Batra, GH: Night Shift (Azita Ghanizada)
Principal Figgins, Glee (Iqbal Theba)
Tom Haverford/Darwish Zubair Ismail Gani, Parks and Recreation (Aziz Ansari)
Kelly Kapoor, The Office (Mindy Kaling)
Divya Katdare, Royal Pains (Reshma Shetty)
Rajesh Koothrappali, The Big Bang Theory (Kunal Nayyar)
Jonathan, 30 Rock (Maulik Pancholy)
Lawrence Kutner, House M.D. (Kal Penn)
Anwar Kharral, Skins (Dev Patel)
Apu and Manjula Nahasapeemapetilon, The Simpsons
Baljeet Patel, Phineas & Ferb
Guru Pathik, Avatar: the Last Airbender
Amita Ramanujan, Numb3rs (Navi Rawat)
Ranjit, How I Met Your Mother (Marshall Manesh)
Neela Rasgotra, ER (Parminder Nagra)
Kalinda Sharma, The Good Wife (Archie Panjabi)
Mohinder Suresh, Heroes (Sendhil Ramamurthy)
South Asian Actors in Non-South Asian TV Roles
Naveen Andrews (Sayid Jarrah, Lost)
Rory Cochrane (24, CSI, Empire Records)
Anjali Jay (Djaq, Robin Hood BBC)
Navi Rawat (Theresa, The O.C.)
Rekha Sharma (Tory Foster, Battlestar Galactica)
Sabine Singh (Greenlee, All My Children)
Dilshad Vadsaria (Rebecca Logan, Greek)
Indira Varma (3 lbs, Rome, Torchwood, etc.)
Non-Bollywood Films featuring Significant South Asian Characters
Bend it Like Beckham
Bhaji on the Beach
Bollywood Hero
Bollywood/Hollywood
Brick Lane
Bride and Prejudice
Earth
Fire
The Guru
Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle (and sequel)
Mississippi Masala
Monsoon Wedding
The Namesake
Salaam Bombay
Slumdog Millionaire
Water
Books featuring South Asian Characters
Padma and Parvati Patil, JK Rowling's Harry Potter series
Captain Nemo, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea by Jules Verne
Nirupam Singh, Chronicles of Chrestomanci: Witch Week by Diana Wynne Jones
I've made my contributions off the top of my head. Please feel free to leave your own in the comments!
purnima_fic. I'm glad to see some new members trickling in. Since one of the basic problems with focusing on characters and actors of South Asian origin is that many don't *know* what shows feature them, I thought it would be prudent to make a list that we can continuously add to!Bollywood, obviously, speaks for itself, but I would love to get a round-up from popular American, Canadian and British TV shows, canceled or older series, book and movie fandoms, etc.
South Asian TV Characters
Saira Batra, GH: Night Shift (Azita Ghanizada)
Principal Figgins, Glee (Iqbal Theba)
Tom Haverford/Darwish Zubair Ismail Gani, Parks and Recreation (Aziz Ansari)
Kelly Kapoor, The Office (Mindy Kaling)
Divya Katdare, Royal Pains (Reshma Shetty)
Rajesh Koothrappali, The Big Bang Theory (Kunal Nayyar)
Jonathan, 30 Rock (Maulik Pancholy)
Lawrence Kutner, House M.D. (Kal Penn)
Anwar Kharral, Skins (Dev Patel)
Apu and Manjula Nahasapeemapetilon, The Simpsons
Baljeet Patel, Phineas & Ferb
Guru Pathik, Avatar: the Last Airbender
Amita Ramanujan, Numb3rs (Navi Rawat)
Ranjit, How I Met Your Mother (Marshall Manesh)
Neela Rasgotra, ER (Parminder Nagra)
Kalinda Sharma, The Good Wife (Archie Panjabi)
Mohinder Suresh, Heroes (Sendhil Ramamurthy)
South Asian Actors in Non-South Asian TV Roles
Naveen Andrews (Sayid Jarrah, Lost)
Rory Cochrane (24, CSI, Empire Records)
Anjali Jay (Djaq, Robin Hood BBC)
Navi Rawat (Theresa, The O.C.)
Rekha Sharma (Tory Foster, Battlestar Galactica)
Sabine Singh (Greenlee, All My Children)
Dilshad Vadsaria (Rebecca Logan, Greek)
Indira Varma (3 lbs, Rome, Torchwood, etc.)
Non-Bollywood Films featuring Significant South Asian Characters
Bend it Like Beckham
Bhaji on the Beach
Bollywood Hero
Bollywood/Hollywood
Brick Lane
Bride and Prejudice
Earth
Fire
The Guru
Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle (and sequel)
Mississippi Masala
Monsoon Wedding
The Namesake
Salaam Bombay
Slumdog Millionaire
Water
Books featuring South Asian Characters
Padma and Parvati Patil, JK Rowling's Harry Potter series
Captain Nemo, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea by Jules Verne
Nirupam Singh, Chronicles of Chrestomanci: Witch Week by Diana Wynne Jones
I've made my contributions off the top of my head. Please feel free to leave your own in the comments!
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Profile
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Page Summary
humaira_k : (no subject) [+1] - tl__dr : a handful off the top of *my* head :D [+1]
- dharmavati : (no subject) [+3]
- sainfoin_fields : here from pen's lj, bearing questionable additions [+1]
- plazmah : (no subject) [+0]
- fireshowers : (no subject) [+1]
- bantha_fodder : (no subject) [+1]
- angerfish : (no subject) [+1]
- tl__dr : One more for the South Asians in non-South Asian roles list! [+0]
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Comments
If I think of anymore then I'll add, but I love this comm!
Literature:
Padma Patil (Harry Potter)
Parvati Patil (Harry Potter)
Captain Nemo (20,000 Leagues Under The Sea)
Nirupam Singh (Chronicles of Chrestomanci: Witch Week)
Shows:
Jonathan (30 Rock, actor: Maulik Pancholy)
Guru Pathik (Avatar: the Last Airbender)
Baljeet Patel (Phineas & Ferb)
Movies:
Mississippi Masala
:)
Navi Rawat played Latina as Theresa Diaz on The OC, and I think she's currently on Flashforward too.
Marshall Manesh is an Iranian actor whose character on How I Met Your Mother, Ranjit, is Bangladeshi (although when he has an outburst in another language, it's Persian).
Iconic, but voiced by a white guy: Apu?
Navi Rawat gets around. She's one of those people like Indira Varma who ends up playing a wide range of ethnicities.
Kartik (Gemma Doyle Trilogy)
Devi Sukhavati (Contact novel)
- Kip/Kirpal Singh in The English Patient. Played by Naveen Andrews in the film and a character I'll personally LOVE to see ficced. (Michael Ondaatje is not entirely a non-South Asian author, being born in Sri Lanka, but he migrated and seems to mostly get non-South Asian love. The film is entirely Hollywood.)
- Too many people in Rudyard Kipling's writings to list out immediately.
- Dr. Aziz (and other minor characters) in A Passage to India, E. M. Forster.
- The villains in The Sign of Four from the Sherlock Holmes canon, Arthur Conan Doyle.
There are all sorts of other really fun (and quite obscure) people spread out in literature of all times. Even Heathcliff is canonically suspected to be descended from an Indian royal lineage, though that's probably more because gypsies are said to trace their origin back to the Rajasthan area. Hope this tiny list helps though.
I hope all of this inspires more people to write!