Varada Sethu


Varada Sethu is a British actress. Her credits include Sket, English: An Autumn in London, Doctors, New Blood, Doctor Foster, Hanna, Strike Back: Vendetta, Jurassic World Dominion, and Annika.
She portrayed Detective Sergeant Mishal Ali in Hard Sun, Cinta Kaz in the Disney+ Star Wars series Andor, and Belinda Chandra in Doctor Who.

Early life

Varada Sethumadhavan was born on 12 May 1992 in Kerala, India. She and her twin sister Abhaya are of Malayali ancestry. Sethu's parents are doctors. She moved to the North East of England at a young age and she grew up in Benton, Tyne and Wear, near Newcastle upon Tyne. Sethu attended Dame Allan's Schools and was a member of the National Youth Theatre. During her final year of sixth form, Sethu won the 2010 Miss Newcastle competition. She went on to study at University of Bristol.
Sethu has been performing the Indian classical dance traditions of both Bharatanatyam and Mohiniyattam from a young age. Sethu continued her acting education at the Identity School of Acting in London.

Career

In 2010, Sethu made her debut appearance on screen in the short film Impressions as Samena. In 2011, Sethu landed the role of Kiran in the feature film Sket, then as Meghana Scariah in English: An Autumn in London in 2012. In 2015 she made an appearance as PC Kylie Green in the 2000 TV series Doctors.
Her career continued in 2016 appearing as Peaseblossom in a 2016 TV movie version of A Midsummer Night's Dream., Now You See Me 2 and New Blood.
In 2017, Sethu appeared as Aisha in two episodes of Doctor Foster. In 2018, Sethu starred as DS Mishal Ali for six episodes in the BBC apocalyptic TV crime series Hard Sun.
In 2019, Sethu performed as a series regular in season seven of Strike Back: Revolution as Lance Corporal Manisha Chetri of the British Army. In 2022, She played rebel Cinta Kaz in both seasons of Andor.
In 2025, Sethu portrayed the companion Belinda Chandra in Doctor Who alongside Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor in series 15. Prior to this, she played Mundy Flynn in the series 14 episode "Boom".