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 (Kalí Theatre) centres around a struggling Punjabi cotton-farming family in rapidly globalising India. Subsequent plays include KABADDI KABADDI KABADDI (Kalí Theatre) 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).

Her audio dramas include an adaptation of Kiran Millwood Hargrave’s THE GIRL OF INK AND STARS (Spark Arts); an adaptation of Pam Gems’ CAMILLE (BBC Radio 3); GARLANDS (BBC Radio 3); STEAM RISES (Tamasha/National Archives) and SOUTHALL UPRISING (BBC Radio 4) about the charged community protests of April 1979.

Satinder’s awards and nominations include: the 2013 Adopt a Playwright Award; an OffWestEnd award nomination for MADE IN INDIA; Eastern Eye Best Production Award for MADE IN INDIA; Kalí Futures Award.

Satinder is currently developing her short film BUSSING and she has received an Arts Council DYCP grant to begin PIND, a novel about Punjabi immigrants. She is also developing her next play EMPIRE OF THE MIND.

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.