Himesh Patel

I personally am going to look for stuff that interests me and either has very little to do or has the right thing to do with my ethnicity.

I think that you've got to do things that you're not particularly comfortable with sometimes, and that's what you get the most respect for.

I think sometimes you can think up a story, but it's because you're comfortable doing that, but when you're an actor, one of the things that you have to do is take yourself out of your comfort zone.

One thing that I struggled with was not corpsing when you're being thrown stuff that's absolutely hilarious by the other actors.

The Beatles kind of pervade everything. They're always kind of part of everyone's lives.

I think an office is just a microcosm of life and the different kinds of people that you will come across and interactions there, and I think if you all sit in a room together, then it gets a bit more intense and fun for people to watch, maybe.

What we had on was BBC Asian Network and Bollywood sound-tracks - they were my reference points. But of course, where I grew up, I was one of two Indian guys in my school, and I didn't really have anyone else to share that with.

Where do I fit in? That's something I think about as an actor, especially as an actor from a minority community.

I was sometimes a bit lonely as a teenager. There was a cultural disconnect.

I went to America for the first time with my mum when I was 7, and I loved it. I remember wanting to see the Hollywood sign, and then, there I was, shooting a scene right by it for 'Yesterday.'

When it comes to period stuff, I think it's great to see South-Asian actors get their foot in the door there, because it's nice to tell period stories and tell it in a way that reflects the world now.

For the last few years, I've enjoyed writing my own stuff since studying creative writing at school, and as I've grown up, I've realised how much I enjoy escaping into a world that I've created myself. So I've kept that up as a hobby.