Satinder Chohan

Satinder is a writer from Southall, West London, who completed her BA in English Language and Literature at King’s College London and her MA at Yale University in the US. Her hometown of Southall continues to inspire her storytelling as her writing explores hidden global South Asian worlds and characters. Her first play ZAMEEN (Kali Theatre) centres around a struggling Punjabi cotton-farming family in rapidly globalising India. Subsequent plays include KABADDI KABADDI KABADDI (Kali Theatre/Pursued By A Bear) about sport, nationality and belonging; MADE IN INDIA (Tamasha/Belgrade/Pilot Theatres) about a Gujarati commercial surrogacy; young people’s play HALF OF ME (Tamasha) created while writer in residence at the Centre for Family Research, University of Cambridge; LOTUS BEAUTY (Hampstead Theatre) about conflicting multigenerational women in a British Asian beauty salon and MIA AND THE FISH (National Theatre Connections 2025) about a refugee girl, her fishy friend and an apocalyptic flood. 
Her audio dramas include an adaptation of Kiran Millwood Hargrave’s THE GIRL OF INK AND STARS (Spark Arts); STEAM RISES (Tamasha/National Archives); GARLANDS (BBC Radio 3); an adaptation of Pam Gems’ CAMILLE (BBC Radio 3); and SOUTHALL UPRISING (BBC Radio 4) about the charged community protests of April 1979. 

Satinder is currently developing her short film BUSSING and previously received an Arts Council DYCP grant for PIND, an ongoing novel about Punjabi immigrants. She is also developing her next play EMPIRE OF THE MIND, adapting the young adult Partition novel A BEAUTIFUL LIE and undertaking an NT Studio Attachment for THE KOH-I-NOOR TRILOGY. Satinder has also worked extensively as a journalist, editing pioneering British Asian arts and style magazine 2nd Generation, and written for numerous publications and websites. As a radio, documentary and film researcher, she has worked for BBC Radio 5, Channel 4 and BBC documentaries (including the Royal Television Society nominated Who’s Teaching Today?) and assorted film development projects.

Satinder’s awards and nominations include: a 2025 Tinniswood Award nomination for SOUTHALL UPRISING; BBC Audio Drama Awards shortlist nominations for CAMILLE and SOUTHALL UPRISING; the 2013 Adopt a Playwright Award; 2 OffWestEnd award nominations (including Most Promising New Playwright) for MADE IN INDIA; 5 OffWestEnd nominations (including Best New Play for LOTUS BEAUTY); Eastern Eye Best Production Award for MADE IN INDIA; The Guardian/4th Estate BAME and Book Edit Prize shortlist for PIND.