Nikesh Shukla


Nikesh Shukla is a British author and screenwriter. His writing focuses on race, racism, identity, and immigration. He is the editor of the 2016 collection of essays The Good Immigrant, which features contributions from Riz Ahmed, Musa Okwonga, Bim Adewunmi, and Reni Eddo-Lodge, among others. With Chimène Suleyman, he co-edited the 2019 follow-up collection called The Good Immigrant: 26 Writers Reflect On America.
WWW nikesh-shukla.com𝕏 nikeshshuklaIG nshuklawhaaat

Early life and career

Shukla was born to Indian immigrants in the London suburb Harrow. He attended Merchant Taylors' school in Northwood, leaving in 1996, then Dr. Challoner's Grammar School.

Career

Literature

Shukla is the author of four novels: Coconut Unlimited, Meatspace, The One Who Wrote Destiny, and The Council of Good Friends.
He is also the author of two books for Young Adults: Run, Riot and The Boxer.
In 2017 he one of was one of the co-founders of the Jhalak Prize awarded annually to British or British resident writers of colour.
In 2019 he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He was a Rathbones Folio Prize Mentor in 2019–2020.
Brown Baby, a memoir addressed to his young daughter, was published in 2021. He hosts a podcast of the same name.

Film

Shukla co-wrote the short film Two Dosas with Sarmad Masud. It starred Himesh Patel. After Danny Boyle awarded the film Best Short at the 2017 Shuffle Festival, Boyle cast Patel in the title role of Jack in Yesterday.

Journalism

Shukla has been a columnist for The Observers magazine supplement and The Pool.

Radio and podcasts

In January 2019, Shukla appeared in series 47 of the BBC Radio 4 show Great Lives, nominating Pakistani wrestler The Great Gama.
Shukla hosted a podcast called The Subaltern podcast, in which he has conversations with writers about writing. He also co-hosted a podcast called Meat Up, Hulk Out with sci-fi writer James Smythe.

Selected works and publications

Books

*

Collections

*

Other work

*

Filmography

  • 2014: Two Dosas - co-writer
  • 2011: ''Kabadasses''

Honours