Nida Manzoor, creator of We Are Lady Parts — the hit series about an all-female, all-Muslim punk band — talks early influences, authenticity and industry challenges, ahead of a Q&A and screening of her film Polite Society at the FilmBath Festival.
I grew up in Singapore and watched these amazing Singaporean sitcoms; they were very slapstick. There’s one called Happy Belly, and another called Under One Roof, which were very formative. I also grew up on American and British TV, so shows like Malcolm in the Middle and Blackadder were a huge influence.
I also have a great love of music. I grew up playing guitar. There’s a kind of through-line between loving music and loving comedy. It’s all about rhythm and timing. My brother, Shez Manzoor, scored Polite Society. We grew up making music together.
Pitching shows was always quite hard. I would get feedback like, ‘Oh, sorry, we’ve already got our show about women of colour.’ You’re always treated as your ‘identity’ rather than the tone, the style, your point of view; you’re just seen to be doing a woman-of-colour show. People saw me as a label, which makes you feel like you’re competing for one slot rather than opening the industry to contain multiple stories.
The industry needs to commission more underrepresented voices. There are schemes, and there’s money going into it, but it’s the belief that is missing — the belief that these shows are actually worth making, and these stories are worth telling. We need more diversity within commissioning, production companies, producers, the people who fight to make the shows — not just the creatives.
Saima Khalid runs a collective for Muslim creatives to come together and share their work — music, poetry or writing. It’s called Makrooh. That was the scene I was most inspired by when it came to creating my own work, because I saw such diversity and humour and vulnerability in those spaces.
For me, success is getting to create work with authenticity, which I’ve been able to do with Polite Society and We Are Lady Parts. They authentically represent the things I want to say, and that has been so creatively fulfilling. You get that great feeling of catharsis from it, and you get to collaborate with people you genuinely love and respect, who can make the work excel beyond your own vision.
Next, I want to do a big historical action movie set in ancient Iraq. A real kind of ‘swords and sandals’ vibe. I want to do a super-violent feminist movie. I’d also love to do a full out-and-out musical. There’s something about musicals that is so hard to pull off and do well, but I love them. I also want another excuse to write a bunch of music with my siblings!”
This feature referred to an event in 2024 called Watch Polite Society
