Sarker was born in Liverpool into an Indian family.[2] Her father is a retired doctor,[3] and her mother Bisakha taught Indian classical dance,[4] for which she was awarded an MBE in December 2013.[5] Sarker has a degree in Information Systems for Business in Europe from Brunel University London.[6] Her great-grandfather was the lawyer, novelist and political activist Nares Sen-Gupta.[7][8] She is of Bengali origin.[9]
Career
Sarker has played a wide variety of roles in her career. Her initial success came when she was cast as recurring character Nisha Batra in the Channel 4 soap opera Brookside from 1988 to 1991, before returning as a regular from 2000 until 2003.[10] Sarker also starred in the regional soap opera London Bridge.[11] This was followed by her portrayal of Anji Mittel in No Angels from 2004 to 2006.[12]
Sarker's next notable role was portraying the part of Clare Burns in the BBC drama The Chase,[13] until the show was pulled after its second series. In 2007, Sarker was a contestant on the celebrity cooking series Celebrity MasterChef.[14] Subsequently, Sarker played the role of Dr Zoe Hanna in the BBC medical drama Casualty from December 2007 until May 2016.[15] After her departure was announced, Sarker made a promise to co-star Jamie Davis that she would return for one episode when he decided to leave the programme, a promise she honoured in 2018, appearing in an episode broadcast on 13 January.[16] She later reprised the role for another guest stint, with her return set to air in 2024.[17]
In 2017, she played DCI Jane Burr in the second series of ITV's Safe House.[18] From 2017 to 2022, Sarker starred in the Channel 4 drama series Ackley Bridge as Kaneez Paracha, for which she received the award for Best TV Character at the Asian Media Awards.[19] On 23 July 2021, it was confirmed that Sarker would become a panellist on Loose Women.[20]
On 23 February 2017, Sarker and her ancestors were the subject of an episode of Who Do You Think You Are? shown on BBC One in which she traced them to Bengal.[9] She learned about her family's involvement in the struggle for independence in India and one of her ancestors' connection to Gandhi.[9] Travelling next to Bangladesh, she visited her great-grandmother's ancestral village where she discovered the story of how her family were caught up in the Bangladeshi war of independence from Pakistan in 1971.[32]
Sarker married Nick Corfield in 2003 and they have a son, Noah, born in 2001.[33] Sarker and Corfield divorced in 2009.[33] In November 2018 Sarker married Scott Carey, whom she has known since 1991.[33]
