Here is the stunning transformation of “One Day” actor Ambika Mod.
“Does that make me first or second generation?”
Mod askedThe Timesin 2022.
“I get confused.”
Mod and her younger sister grew up in Hatfield, Hertfordshire.
“Friends” was her first big influence.
“And that ambition to be that funny and skilled as a performer has always stuck with me.”
However, her parents encouraged her to focus on more academic pursuits.
Although she was a big fan of stars likeMindy Kaling, she struggled with the overall dearth of representation.
Clearly, she had an amazing time at Durham and learned a lot about comedy while she was there.
As she said toThe Guardian, “I found comedy and it swept me away…
There’s no better feeling than standing on stage and making people laugh.”
At first, making it as an actor wasn’t exactly easy.
In fact, it was a while before she even landed an agent.
“Nobody was interested it was really disheartening,” she said to The Times.
Instead of quickly landing a break out role, Mod found herself bouncing around various other jobs.
She worked at the department store John Lewis, and then worked as a personal assistant at Conde Nast.
All the while, she continued writing sketch comedy and looking for opportunities to perform.
After a while, she began to doubt herself and wonder if she had made the right decision.
However, as she told The Guardian, she felt “like a massive fail.”
Luckily, Mod didn’t give up she kept on trying to follow her dreams.
And soon enough, things began to turn around.
The show led to Mod signing with an agent, but things remained tough.
That sort of anhedonia the lack of pleasure, no matter what you do is something I experienced."
“I felt, ‘I can relate to that,'” she said.
As Mod told Bustle, the role came out of the blue.
“This sounds really wanky, but I feel like the universe brought it to me.”
Of course, she was nervous at first.
Mod’s performance also earned her Best Supporting Actor at the 2023 Royal Television Society Programme Awards.
What’s more, the fan messages began to pour in.
“The immediate feedback has been huge,” Mod told The Times.
Mod’s nothing but grateful for all of the fan support she’s received.
Mod appeared in two episodes as Una, a film crew member in the fictional show within a show.
“I’ve been asking Liv a lot about the role.”
Luckily, Mod had real-life runners to learn from on set.
The real runner, Liv, then showed Mod how she made coffee for the cast members on set.
Clearly, Mod had some great real-life inspiration to pull from when creating her character.
This part also offered Mod a chance to flex her comedy chops.
While the role proved to be a home run for Mod, she almost passed on it.
Thanks to a badcase of imposter syndrome, she did not even want to audition for the project.
“I always have imposter syndrome, always!”
she said to Glamour.
“Even when I’m not even doing anything remarkable.
And apparently, it required a fair amount of work.
“I couldn’t do it.”
However, that all changed after she started working with Natalie Grady, an accent coach.
By the sounds of things, the process was very, very intensive.
But yeah, it took a village, for sure.
I definitely didn’t just do it on my own.
In fact, even after filming, she couldn’t quite believe it was real.
Mod also realized that “One Day” would catapult her to new levels of fame.
In fact, she even jokingly called the premiere date her “death day.”
“Everything after that is just black.”
she said to Glamour.
“I literally have no preconceptions or expectations.”
With “One Day” freshly out on Netflix, she’s already looking towards her next project.
And that’s not all Mod has up her sleeve.
In the years to come, we might see her get behind the camera, too.
“I definitely want to produce.
I definitely want to develop a show from the early stages… Well, we cannot wait to see what comes next.
