Preeya Kalidas (born 21 June 1980) is a British singer and actress. She previously played Amira Masood in the soap opera EastEnders. Having done so, she returned to her career in singing, with her single "Shimmy" being released in July 2010 taken from her debut album (I'm Over It) Constant Craving, supposed to be released in September 2010.
Preeya was born to Gujarati parents in Isleworth, and was raised in Twickenham, south-west London. Her father is an independent financial adviser, and her mother works for British Airways. She started ballet classes at the age of three, and tap at five. She then trained at the Sylvia Young Theatre School in London. She also trained at Songtime Theatre Arts.heritage.
Kalidas first appeared on screen in the drama Googleyes. She went on to play Usha in a short film called Jump Boy in 1998, directed by Menhaj Huda and written by Harsha Patel. After a number of parts in films and on television, including East is East, Bollywood Queen, My Family and Casualty, in 2002 she appeared as Monica in Gurinder Chadha's film Bend It Like Beckham. She then played the female lead Priya in the Andrew Lloyd Webber-produced show Bombay Dreams, written by A.R. Rahman, Meera Syal and Don Black. She also appeared in the BBC Television series Bodies as Dr. Maya Dutta.