Sophiya Haque

Sophiya Haque
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Born	Syeda Sophia Haque (1971-06-14)14 June 1971 Portsmouth, Hampshire, England
Died	London, England
Cause of death	Cancer, pneumonia
Nationality	British
Ethnicity	Bengali-British
Occupation	Actress, singer, video jockey, dancer
Years active	1988–2012
Height	5 ft 7 in (1.70 m)
Partner(s)	David White
Parent(s)	Amirul Haque (father) Thelma Haque (mother)

Sophiya Haque (14 June 1971 – 17 January 2013) was an English actress, singer, video jockey and dancer. She is best known for playing the role of Poppy Morales in Coronation Street between 2008 and 2009.

Early life

Haque was born Syeda Sophia Haque in Portsmouth, Hampshire to a Bangladeshi father and British mother. She was the youngest of three daughters.

She was brought up by her mother, Thelma, a divorced schoolteacher. She attended the Priory School, Orpington, and took dancing lessons from the age of two and a half at Mary Forrester's Rainbow School of Dance before moving at the age of 13 to London (where she lived with her father, Amirul Haque, a restaurateur, and his second wife), training full-time at the Arts Educational Schools, London.

Career

Haque started as the lead vocalist in the band Akasa; they signed a deal with Warner Bros. in 1988. Subsequently she worked as a video jockey for MTV Asia for seven years and Channel V.

Haque was employed as a presenter at STAR TV in Hong Kong in 1992. From 1994, she began appearing on TV in India and in 1997 she moved to Mumbai full-time to work on the Channel V India service. Her first Bollywood film was Khoobsurat, and she later made several more including Mangal Pandey: The Rising.

In 2002, Haque returned to the United Kingdom to star as Rani in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Bombay Dreams. In 2005, she starred as Kabir Bedi in the West End theatre musical production of The Far Pavilions. In 2012, she starred as Soraya in Wah! Wah! Girls.

In 2008, she took a small supporting role in the film Wanted. Between December 2008 and June 2009, she played Poppy Morales, the barmaid and assistant manager of the Rovers Return, in Coronation Street and by coincidence, shared her dressing room with Coronation Street's Auntie Pam played by actress Kate Anthony, who was also her first cousin!

In 2012, she appeared in BBC's Fairy Tales series and in 15 episodes of House of Anubis as Senkhara. She was diagnosed with cancer when she was working in the Michael Grandage production of Privates on Parade, playing the role of, Sylvia Morgan, a Welsh-Indian singer and dancer performing for the British troops in Malaya in 1948.

Personal life and death

Haque lived in Knaphill, Surrey, with her partner, musical director David White, and the couple were in the process of building a houseboat when she fell ill.

Around Christmas 2012, Haque was diagnosed with cancer. She developed a lung clot and pneumonia and in the early hours of 17 January 2013, she died in her sleep in a London hospital, while undergoing tests.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1999	Khoobsurat		Special appearance (as Sophia Haque)
2000	Snip!	Tara
	Alaipayuthey		Tamil film, special appearance
	Har Dil Jo Pyar Karega	Dancer in song 'Aisa Pehli Baar Hua Hai'
2001	Indian		(as Sofia Haque)
2002	Haan Maine Bhi Pyaar Kiya	Dancer in Red Saaree opposite Akshay Kumar in song "zindagi ko bina pyaar koi kaise guzare"
	Santosham		Telugu film, 'Mehbooba' Song
2003	Pehli Nazar Ka Pehla Pyaar: Love at First Sight	Dancer
	Sandhya
2003	Udhaya		Tamil film, special appearance
2005	The Rising: Ballad of Mangal Pandey		Singer/dancer in song 'Rasiya' (uncredited)
2008	Wanted	Puja
	Hari Puttar: A Comedy of Terrors	Anna Singh	(as Sophia Haque)

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2008	Fur TV	Mrs Slaughter	1 episode: Rent Boys/Hot Pussy
	Fairy Tales	Ameera	1 episode: The Empress's New Clothes
2008–2009	Coronation Street	Poppy Morales	60 episodes
2012	House of Anubis	Senkhara	44 episodes

Theatre

Year	Title	Role	Theatre
2002	Bombay Dreams	Rani	Apollo Victoria and Shaftesbury Theatre
2005	The Far Pavilions	Kabir Bedi
2012	Wah! Wah! Girls	Soraya	Theatre Royal Stratford East/Peacock Theatre
	Privates on Parade	Sylvia Morgan	Noel Coward Theatre London's West End

External links

• Sophiya Haque at the Internet Movie Database

• Evening Standard report, 21 Jan 2013