Ambreen Razia
Ambreen Razia
The actor and writer talks about The Agency, Ted Lasso and why she’s a south west Londoner through and through…
Ambreen Razia beams as I move the camera during our Zoom interview to show her my view out of the office window over Merton Abbey Mills. She knows it well and has fond memories of coming here as a child for its annual music festival. She went to school at Ricards Lodge down the road, studied at Kingston College and University and still lives locally in New Malden. She hasn’t gone far but she has come a long way.
The actor has had roles in hit series such as Ted Lasso and Black Mirror, most recently appeared in In Flight, and is currently filming season two of The Agency, an American spy thriller also starring Richard Gere and Michael Fassbender. Filming has been taking place at Shinfield Studios in Reading, and Ambreen’s role as CIA analyst Blair Khan has grown significantly this season.
“They’ve given me an incredible story arc. It’s really exciting,” she says. “It’s on a different level in terms of discipline and endurance needed, but I’ve loved it. She’s a very strong character, ambitious, and she can be ruthless, but I think what’s been amazing this season is she has been given space, we see her vulnerabilities.”
Ambreen is meticulous in preparing for her roles. “I’m pretty forensic when I approach a script. I read a scene hundreds of times as I believe in the power of repetition. It taps into your subconscious. I also work with an acting coach, and a personal trainer for the physical side, and I attend Meisner classes, a particular practice within acting.”
Working alongside such top names has also been formative. “I’ve got these big scenes with Richard and Michael – it’s incredible working with these guys. I’ve learned so much from just watching them. They’re very authentic and unique in their approach.”
Her gritty roles in The Agency and In Flight are a world away from the character of Shandy Fine in Ted Lasso, an insecure former glamour model she portrayed across five episodes. “There’s a pressure that comes with that because you’re joining a pre-existing show and team, but they were all really wonderful and made me feel so welcome. Shandy was a great character to play: bold, punchy and a bit unbearable. You can have fun with it comedically and go a little bit larger than life.”
In Flight tells the story of Jo (played by Katherine Kelly), a flight attendant and single mum whose son is imprisoned in Bulgaria for a crime he insists he didn’t commit. Ambreen was drawn to the project because of some of the themes. “I come from a long line of women who’ve worked for the airlines. My mum worked as security for American Airlines. My auntie was an air hostess. They were also single mothers as well.”
Those themes of motherhood and female resilience also play out in Ambreen’s own writing. She’s currently working on Wasted, in development with Expectation TV, which tackles addiction and post-natal depression in a South Asian community.
“There’s certain rhythms that come up in your work because they exist in you as the artist. I’ve had a particular kind of upbringing in a community where single motherhood is not the norm.”
“I want to shine a light on a very different part of the South Asian community that we’ve not seen before where women are more complex, ferocious and full of rage and imperfections. They are also having to do it all by themselves. I’m hoping to break the seal on that particular world within a South Asian context. Shows like Atlanta and Beef have done it so brilliantly for those communities and I just hope to make interesting work that does the same.”
Born in St George’s Hospital in Tooting, Ambreen calls south west London the “backbone of her identity.”
“If I go away for a long period of time, I always come back to south west London, I just love it so much.”
On her days off, she likes to walk in Cannizaro Park, picnic on the common, or rummage through Wimbledon Village charity shops. “You can find some really great pieces that you wouldn’t usually find,” she says. She’s also passionate about the local food scene, particularly in Tooting, frequenting spots like Mirch Masala and Watan, an Afghani-Pakistani restaurant she introduced to The Agency co-star John Magaro. “John loved Watan. He is a massive foodie, and I didn’t know what he would make of it as it’s not this fancy Michelin-style place. But the food is unreal and he loved it. I feel very proud that I can introduce people to some of these places.”
Ambreen grew up in Tooting, spent time living with her grandmother in Colliers Wood, and also lived in Morden. As a teen, she worked to help her mother with the bills, waitressing, then hairdressing, a career she seriously considered until her drama teacher, Miss Sawyer, encouraged her to pursue acting. Miss Sawyer still attends Ambreen’s plays.
Her journey took her to Kingston College for a BTEC in drama, then Kingston University, where she fell in love with everything from Shakespeare to Joe Orton. “I relished it all. Every text that was given to me… I just ate everything up really.”
While working with Arc Theatre – performing in pupil referral units and prisons – she wrote her first play, Diary of a Hounslow Girl. At the time, she was also waitressing and working in a call centre. “It was intense but when you love doing something it’s the first thing you think of in the morning and it gives you this energy that you cannot get from 10 cups of coffee.”
Though she now balances both writing and acting, acting will always be her first love, a passion shaped by her mother. “My mum was obsessed with cinema. And she was a beautiful rebel – she introduced me to films I shouldn’t have watched at a very young age.”
“We used to sit in the living room over the weekend. She’d have a good few cigarettes and the curtains were drawn and we’d watch the Godfather Trilogy… I think I was about seven. She introduced me to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest when I was around eight. That was a bit too far actually. But I got introduced to these amazing monumental Oscar-winning films, before I even turned 10.”
“And my mum, whatever she was going through, she used cinema to escape a lot of the time. I find I do use cinema to escape and that’s why it would always be my first love… I feel so affiliated with it through my mum, and I know how much it gave her in terms of escapism and peace and enjoyment.”
Looking to the future, Ambreen is eager for roles that challenge and excite but she’s equally keen to shape the stories being told. “I’d love to do incredible, exciting, challenging roles. But I also feel like I would like to be part of moving the needle and shaping representation as well, particularly South Asian representation. Later on, I’d love to do some directing. I don’t think I’m ready for it yet, but way down the line, I’d love to direct.”
When asked what inspires her most, her answer is immediate: “The women who have gone before me inspire me because they were always pushing the envelope in one way or the other. They were always breaking boundaries in terms of what it means to be a South Asian woman. My play Favour is a little bit of an insight into my childhood.”
“I think possibly because there was no kind of male context at all, there was no hiding away from their complexity and they were able to scream and laugh really loudly and be angry. No one was trying to conform or fit into anything. It was very vibrant, funny, ferocious women I grew up with. That’s what inspires me and that’s what I always tap back into when I’m on set. I remember the strong and very specific foundation I’ve come from, and that always gives me strength.”
Main image:
Photographer David Reiss
Hair and Make Up: Rebecca Richards
Styling: Sarah Rose Harrison
Ted Lasso, AppleTV / The Agency Season 1, Paramount+
