Rakhee Thakrar

 ( 1984 Births ) 

She attended Taylor Primary School and Soar Valley College. She took drama as a GCSE subject and acted in a play at the Phoenix Theatre. As a teenager, Thakrar became involved with Hathi Productions, a theatre club based in Leicester run by Jez Simons, her drama teacher, who has written for EastEnders.

She was going to study textile design, but decided to take a year out, which led to several roles on the stage as well as learning a lot about the theatre production.

Thakrar was cast in EastEnders in 2013 and made her first on-screen appearance on 13 January 2014. Her character, Shabnam Masood, had previously been played by Zahra Ahmadi from 2007 to 2008. Thakrar's most famous storyline while portraying Shabnam was when the character gave birth to a stillborn son, with viewers, critics and co-workers praising her performance throughout the storyline. Due to her performance in the storyline, Thakrar has subsequently become an ambassador for the stillbirth charity, Sands. Thakrar left EastEnders in 2015 and was last seen onscreen on 5 February 2016, following Shabnam's failed marriage to Kush Kazemi (Davood Ghadami).

In 2019, she began portraying the role of Emily Sands in the Netflix comedy drama series Sex Education. (2019–2023).

She also voices the Eighth Doctor companion Bliss in Big Finish's Doctor Who: The Time War audio dramas.