Jassa Ahluwalia is a British actor, writer, filmmaker, and trade unionist. Born in Coventry to a white English mum and a brown Punjabi dad in 1990, he attended school in Leicester and was raised in an extended family environment. He spoke English in the playground, Punjabi with his grandparents, and spent various summer holidays in India. He came to prominence as Rocky in the hit BBC Three series Some Girls, followed by starring roles in Unforgotten, Ripper Street, and Peaky Blinders. Jassa created the hashtag #BothNotHalf to explore mixed identity in light of his own British-Indian heritage. His TEDx talk on ‘How Language Shapes Identity’ has clocked up over 170k views and his BBC One documentary Am I English? won an Asian Media Award in 2022.
<p>“This guy has better Punjabi than both of us and he’s only half Punjabi. Only half. I stared at those words. The intent behind the comment was in no way malicious, but it hurt. I felt diminished. I felt like I was being robbed of something essential to me. And as I stared at my screen, realization dawned. ‘#bothnothalf’ I replied.”</p><p>For over twenty-five years, actor Jassa Ahluwalia described himself as ‘half Indian, half English’. But he looks white. His fluent Punjabi always prompted bewilderment, medical staff questioned the legitimacy of his name, and the world of casting taught him he wasn’t ‘the right kind of mixed-race’.</p><p>Feeling caught between two worlds, it wasn’t long before Jassa embarked on a call to action: we need to change how we think and talk about mixed identity.</p><p>Both Not Half is a rallying cry for a new and inclusive future. It’s a journey of self-discovery that unearths the historical roots of modern mixed identity as we know it, deconstructing perceived binaries and the narratives we passively accept. Part-memoir, part-manifesto, this is a campaign for belonging in a divided world.</p>
