Taj Atwal is on a roll at the moment. Not only does she have a new season of Aimee Lou Wood’s show Daddy Issues coming out, but she’s also been making waves in Riot Women. “I met somebody the other day who’s watched it twice,” she laughs. “[People have had] really meaningful responses… I’ve had a lot of older middle-aged men stop me saying it’s the best thing they’ve seen in years.”
In it, Atwal plays Nisha, a cop who joins the Riot Women punk band, but also finds herself dealing with institutional abuse and racism. “When I first read it, I got a bit scared thinking, my character goes through a lot,” she says. But there has been a positive: “It seems to open up more dialogue for people who wouldn’t usually be so concerned about these stories.”
Born in Norwich before moving to Yorkshire at seven, Atwal tried a range of jobs before deciding that acting was the profession for her. “I worked at Halfords. I dipped my toe into hairdressing. So many different things,” she says. “It wasn’t until midway into being at drama school that I thought: yeah. We were constantly told that only this many of us would ever be working and there was always that fear instilled into us. Are we even gonna be working when we graduate?”
She was. Within six months, she was working with Ruth Jones on her show Stella, and from there, she went on to appear in shows like Line of Duty (as Pc Tatleen Sohota), Miranda and Death in Paradise.
That said, the path hasn’t been smooth. “At drama school we were given a lot of classical texts and I was just being cast as things like Maid One or Nurse,” she says. “Then I worked with directors who allowed me to use my own accent.”
She cites a performance of Measure for Measure where she was allowed to use her own Yorkshire accent as a turning point: “Then the seed in my mind started to change: yeah, I can make a career of this.”
I’ve had a lot of older middle-aged men stop me saying Riot Women is the best thing they’ve seen in years
Has representation improved in the 15 years since? “I think so. I mean we still have to talk about it, which is annoying. I’d love to get to a place where we don’t have to, because it’s just the norm,” she says. “The change isn’t fully there for me yet, but it’s definitely better.”
For the time being, there’s that new season of Daddy Issues to look forward to, as well as concentrating on both her acting and writing.
“It would be a long time coming, but I would like to try fantasy,” she says. “I’d love to write a fantasy movie or TV series.”
As for acting: “I really want District 10 to come out. I mean I’d obviously have to play a character that’s not South African or try a South African accent, but I just so want to be in that movie. It’s so good.”
Daddy Issues season two is on BBC and iPlayer from November 21
© The Standard Ltd