Varada Sethu

Varada Sethu (born Varada Sethumadhavan, 12 May 1992) is a British-Indian actor; she won the Miss Newcastle beauty pageant competition in 2010. Her credits include Sket (2010), English: An Autumn in London (2012), Doctors (2015), New Blood (2016), Doctor Foster (2017), Hanna (2019), Strike Back: Vendetta (2020), Jurassic World Dominion (2022), and Annika (2023).

She is notable for playing Detective Sergeant Mishal Ali in Hard Sun (2018), and Cinta Kaz in the Disney Star Wars series Andor (2022–present), and as Belinda Chandra in Doctor Who (2025–present).

Early life

Sethu and her twin sister, Abhaya, were born in Kerala, India, and are of Malayali ancestry. Sethu's parents are both doctors. Having moved to the North East of England at a young age, 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 veterinary medicine at University of Bristol, later switching to physiology. Sethu has been performing 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. Also in 2016, Sethu acted alongside Michael Caine and Daniel Radcliffe in Now You See Me 2 and as an Indian nurse in 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 the first season of Andor.

In 2025, Sethu portrayed the companion Belinda Chandra in Doctor Who alongside Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor in Series 15 in 2025. Prior to this, she played Mundy Flynn in the Series 14 episode "Boom".