‘I can't believe I'm paid to watch Ncuti Gatwa!': Doctor Who's boundary-pushing new companion, Varada Sethu
Most teenagers rebel against their parents in small ways: sneaking out, stealing a nip of Cointreau, arriving home past curfew. Not Varada Sethu, the Newcastle-raised actor who's about to grace screens as new companion Belinda Chandra in the forthcoming season of Doctor Who. Her rebellion took on a go-big-or-go-home attitude befitting a future screen star: when she was 18 she entered, and subsequently won, the Miss Newcastle beauty pageant. 'Oh my God, I thought that was gonna be buried somewhere!' she exclaims when I bring it up. The whole thing was 'kind of an accident', she explains: 'My sister and I were walking around in Eldon Square shopping centre, and they asked us if we wanted to enter, and I thought: 'Yeah, I'll give it a go' – I thought it might piss off my parents a bit!'
The decision to enter definitely caused 'a bit of friction', but Sethu's parents didn't raise a quitter. 'On the day we had the rehearsals, I called my mum up and said: 'I don't want to do this, can you please take me home?' And Mum was like: 'Well, you've signed up for it, so you're doing it,'' she recalls. 'None of us expected me to win – the whole thing was a bit of a bodge job for me!'
Now 32, the beauty pageant world 'doesn't really align with' Sethu's value system, and her chosen vocation is miles – galaxies, really – away from that world of tiaras and special skills. In recent years, thanks to a starring role in the acclaimed Star Wars series Andor and her forthcoming turn as Belinda, as well as a part in the 2018 BBC drama Hard Sun, she's become known as a go-to British sci-fi actor. 'You don't often see brown people in space – well, you do more than in other genres, because they're futuristic – but I don't think I necessarily saw myself as part of the sci-fi world,' she says. 'So I don't quite know how I ended up here, but I love it, and I'm very, very happy to be here.'
Born in Kerala, India, Sethu moved with her parents and twin sister to Newcastle upon Tyne when she was six. Her entire family are artistic – her father sings and her mother is a dancer – but 'everybody does it as a hobby', so when she caught the acting bug after doing National Youth Theatre as a teenager, her parents insisted she pursue a veterinary degree as well. After a few months in vet school, she was ready to drop out. '[One day] my dad outright asked me: 'Are you actually happy?' and I completely fell apart. I was honest, saying: 'No, this isn't what I want to do – I want to follow my dreams, I want to go into acting,'' she says. 'My mum thought it was an impulsive decision – she thought that I found uni quite hard and I didn't want to do it any more, which is, you know, maybe a fair thing to say – I am impulsive!'
After Sethu landed a few jobs – including in Russell T Davies's 2016 TV adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream – her mum came round. 'When she saw that I'm able to support myself, [her opinion] changed,' she says. 'She's very much onboard now that she knows it's what I love doing, and that I'll find a way to survive.'
Sethu's breakout came in 2022 when she was cast as the medic Cinta Kaz in Andor, a prequel to the acclaimed 2016 Star Wars spin-off Rogue One. Andor has been praised as one of the best Star Wars properties in many years – the franchise has been hampered, of late, by a deluge of tepidly received streaming shows – and Sethu says she 'knew that it would do well, because it's such beautiful writing, it's so considered and layered and complex'.
In the show, Sethu's character is in a same-sex relationship, still a rarity in mainstream franchises. 'It meant a lot to me – I think the best thing about that part was that it wasn't this huge deal, it was just normalised, nobody bats an eyelid,' she says. 'I believe that's how it should be. Unfortunately, there are certain parts of the world where it's illegal to be gay or to be queer in any way. It's a fundamental part of someone, but it's also so arbitrary, and sadly there's still a ways to go. So anything that is moving towards highlighting how totally normal and fine it is to be queer, I'm on board with. It meant a lot to have that representation in the Star Wars world as well – the first, I think we were told, openly queer relationship [in Star Wars].'
Despite the shows being vastly different, Andor gave Sethu a little bit of experience in terms of shouldering a massive, beloved franchise when it came to stepping into Doctor Who, which she wasn't a fan of before appearing on the show. In 2023, she filmed a guest spot as a soldier who comes to the aid of the Fifteenth Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) in the episode Boom, and later that year was asked to take a meeting to be Gatwa's new companion. 'I wasn't expecting to come back,' she says. 'It was amazing to be able to come back, and it was great because it didn't feel like the first day at school, not knowing anybody – I had already had a little taste of it, and everyone knew me.'
Although Sethu is forbidden from revealing too much about Belinda's arc this season, she liked that 'she was able to stand on her own, and she felt very much like the main character in her own story', she says. 'She felt very independent from the Doctor – it really feels like they're equals.'
Working with Gatwa, whose turn as the first non-white Doctor has won rave reviews, was a dream come true. 'He's so talented, and to watch him every day you have to match that energy. I think that's what was great about us – if one of us was feeling knackered or whatever, the other one pulled our weight,' she says. 'I never got sick of [seeing him act] – I'd think: 'God, I can't believe I'm getting paid to do this, to watch Ncuti, one of the greatest actors of our time, perform this great piece in front of me.''
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Sci-fi fans are notorious for rejecting or trolling any non-white actors who enter their favourite worlds, but Sethu says she has thus far been unscathed. 'What I try to concentrate on, and what Ncuti tries to concentrate on, is the gratitude and the joy we have in being able to share stories with people who are choosing to be kind and accepting,' she says. 'I mean – Doctor Who is about an alien who changes skin every couple of years, so why does it matter?'
As for the rumours that Gatwa is looking to make this season of the show his last, in search of greater opportunities in the US, Sethu remains coy. '[Gatwa and I] speak about all sorts of things, but I think it's ultimately … I feel like the decisions are made by people above us, right?' she says. 'It's kind of above my pay grade to be able to say if anyone's staying or going or whatever.'
Whether or not Sethu signs on for another season, she's sure to be in high demand very soon, thanks to both Doctor Who and a new season of Andor. 'There's not a lot I can say, in the same way there's not a lot I can say about Doctor Who, but there's some more action in Andor season two,' she says. 'I got to do some very, very cool stunts. But I don't want to give a lot away!'
In the meantime, Sethu is hoping to pick up roles outside of the sci-fi niche she's becoming known for. 'I'm hungry for more of all of it – drama, comedy, tragedy, all of it. I would love to do something silly, like a fun romcom, or a very, very serious drama,' she says. 'The reason I went into acting, or what I love most about acting, is that you get to experience the full spectrum of the human experience – and sometimes outside of it. I love that I've been able to explore space without actually having to, you know … go there!'
Doctor Who returns 12 April, 6.50pm, BBC One.
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