| Parminder Kaur Nagra is an English actress of Indian descent. Nagra was born to Sikh parents who immigrated to England from the Punjab region of northern India in the late 1960s. Affectionately known as "Mindi," her first name means "highest God" or "God of gods." Her middle name, meaning "Lioness," is traditionally given to Sikh women (Sikh men traditionally have the middle name "Singh."). Her family background was decidedly working class. Her father, Sucha, a factory worker, is believed to have separated from her mother, Nashuter, a packer in a factory, when Parminder was a child. Parminder, her two younger brothers, and her younger sister were raised in a small terrace house in the Belgrave district of Leicester by her mother and stepfather, who worked as a bookkeeper at a cousin's transport company. At the age of seven, Nagra suffered a burn that resulted in the scar shown in her 2002 breakout role in the internationally acclaimed film Bend It Like Beckham. While preparing a meal, a gas stove set her trousers alight. She was taken into the bathroom by an uncle and immersed in cold water. However, when the trouser fabric was removed, it took skin with it, resulting in a large scar on her right leg. In 1991, at the age of 16, Nagra took a job as an usher at the Leicester Haymarket Theatre, ostensibly to watch and learn from the local talent. Her former boss recalls her as brilliant, polite, and very sweet, but also that she was quiet, giving no hints as to her future rise to stardom. In her late teens, Nagra was shown a photograph of a potential husband, but she resisted attempts by her parents to arrange a marriage for her. This small incident was more fodder for the media than a pivotal event in her young life, as her mother quickly dropped the idea. In 2004, she received a Teen Choice Award nomination for her work on ER and also had the honor of being a torch bearer as the Olympic torch passed through London on its way to the Games in Athens. In 2005 she took home an Outstanding Achievement in Acting Award from the South Asian Students' Alliance. Later on in the year, Nagra finished filming season 11 of ER and returned to her native Leicester to work on director Amit Gupta's Love in Little India in which she was cast as the female lead. She was nominated for a 2006 Asian Excellence Award, in the category of Outstanding Female Television Performance, for her work in ER.
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