Varada Sethu – British actress of Indian Origin

Varada Sethu is a British actress of Indian Origin, who appears in both shows and movies. She is best known for playing DS Mishal Ali in TV Series Hard Sun and also Shira in Jurassic World Dominion. She mostly does action roles in British cinema. She has appeared in more than a half dozen of TV shows and films each, and marked her Malayalam debut with ‘English’ directed by Shyama Prasad. ‘Pramadavanam’ directed by acclaimed director, Jayaraj is her upcoming flick, where she plays a full-fledged Malayali girl.

Varada Sethu was brought up in UK

She hails from Kozhikode, born into a family of physicians. Her father Dr. Sethu Variyar is a paediatrician and her mother Dr. Anitha is an ophthalmologist. Both her parents are drawn towards art, and that’s the main reason why young Varada got interested in dance, theatre, cinema and other art forms since childhood. Her father is a good singer, and her mother is a good dancer, and Varada also briefly learnt Bharatnatyam and Mohiniyattam. She came to UK at the age of 6, and since then she is settled here.

Varada Sethu owns a theatre life which paved way to cinema

Since school days in UK, she acted in plays, and has also earned the badge, ‘Theatre prefect’. It has helped her a lot in improving her self-confidence. For graduation, first she opted for Veterinary medicine. After 1 year she realized, it’s not her cup of tea and that acting is her real passion. Later she changed to physiology and also joined ‘Old with theatre’ troupe, where she was a part of several stage plays. Later she got a position in the prestigious theatre institute owned by government, National New Theatre of Great Britain, the group which groomed several famous theatre artists and actors. She continued her acting studies at Identity School of Acting in London.

Winning Miss Newcastle competition opened doors to cinema

In 2010, during her academy years Varada won Miss Newcastle competition, and very soon appeared in a short film, Appearances as Sameena. After that she made brief appearances in a few films like Sket (2011) and English: An Autumn in London (2012). She got into acting in full swing after completing her graduation in 2014. She has been a part of English films – A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Now You See Me 2, Jurassic World Dominion and I Came By and also acted in a couple of short films, Bad News and Special Delivery.

The movie, Jurassic World Dominion, which she did after Covid pandemic earned her a lot of popularity. Though she desires to continue her association with British art and cinema, she is willing to accept good roles in Malayalam as well. She was called to Jayaraj’s film, when she came to hometown for a vacation of 10 days. As she can’t read Malayalam properly, she had bit difficulties in learning Malayalam dialogues.

Varada Sethu – Some interesting and less-known facts

1. She has a twin sister, and her name is Abhaya.

2. When she acted in her first Malayalam movie, Shyamaprasad’s English: An Autumn in London (2013), Sethu used to shuttle between Bristol, where she was studying, and London, for her shooting.

3. She has earned the badge, ‘Theatre prefect’ for her experience in theatre, during school days.

4. She was a member of the National Youth Theatre.

5. She played a ruthless rebel in ‘Star Wars’ show ‘Andor’.