One Day star Ambika Mod is an award-winning performer, even though you might not know her name yet… So you’ll be surprised to learn that acting wasn’t even her first choice of career.
Despite her heartbreaking performance as Shruti in This Is Going to Hurt, and her new role in Netflix‘s adaptation of David Nicholls’ book One Day, Ambika only became an actor after Covid-19 thwarted her plans for another career.
Here’s everything you need to know about One Day actress Ambika Mod, what she’s been in before, and her original choice of career…
Who plays Emma Morley in One Day?
Ambika Mod is a British actress from Potters Bar, Hertfordshire. She is best known for her role in This Is Going To Hurt.
She was named a BAFTA Breakthrough talent in 2022. In 2023, she won Best Actress from the Broadcasting Press Guild Awards and Best Supporting Actor at the RTS Awards. Quite rightly.
Ambika Mod portrays the lead role of Emma Morley in the new Netflix adaptation of One Day.
She recently appeared on The Graham Norton Show, talking about the role. She said: “I turned it down to begin with. I was being an idiot thinking it wasn’t for me. A month later I rang my agent to say I had made a terrible mistake.”
How old is Ambika Mod? Where is she from?
Although her birth date is unknown, Ambika Mod is reportedly 28 years old at the time of writing.
Ambika grew up in Potters Bar, Hertfordshire. She attended Dame Alice Owen’s School, before studying at St Mary’s College in Durham from 2014 to 2017. Like her One Day character Emma, she studied English at university.
She initially hoped for a career in stand-up comedy, after performing at both Durham and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
However, Covid hit and she retrained as an actor. Speaking to BAFTA, she said: “When Covid hit and my live comedy went away, I began to figure out what it was I wanted to do. I started doing acting classes, because I thought if I’m not working I might as well try to get better at that.”
After re-training, she won a role in the excellent drama This Is Going to Hurt, and “everything seems to have blown up in a really amazing way”.
In 2024, she told The Guardian: “”
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