Oscar-winning actress Olivia Colman, popular for playing the middle-aged Queen Elizabeth II in The Crown on Netflix, has a Kolkata connection with Bihari roots.
A clip from a seven-year-old interview of Colman, where she opens up about her Indian connection, particularly with Kolkata and Bihar, has surfaced online, leaving many desi fans in awe.
With equal parts wonder and sarcasm, many internet users are amazed at how the actress playing the Queen of England in Netflix series The Crown has an Indian heritage in her personal life.
During an episode of the show Who Do You Think You Are, which aired in 2019, Colman visited Bihar’s Kishanganj to trace her Indian roots. Before the big reveal, the 52-year-old actress appeared confident that her ancestors have never lived anywhere outside Norfolk. But as time went on in the show, it was a delight to see her experience an “Eureka” moment discovering her ancestry.
Olivia Colman’s great-great-great-grandmother Harriot “India Harriot” Slessor was the daughter of William Edward Slessor, an East India Company officer and an unidentified local Indian woman from Bihar. She was born in Kishanganj around 1807 when India was under East India Company’s control, and her story suggests that Colman is partly Anglo-Indian.
Following her father’s death, Harriot was sent from Kishanganj to England via Kolkata port around 1810. When she turned 24 or 25, Harriot returned to India in 1832 and spent her time in Kolkata, where she married and had children before returning to England. This also means that someone in her ancestry was born in Kolkata.
It was also revealed that Colman’s 4x-great-grandfather, Richard Campbell Bazett, worked for the East India Company and operated out of London and Kolkata.
Colman is known for taking on the mantle of Queen Elizabeth II from Claire Foy in Seasons 3 and 4 of The Crown to portray a middle-aged Queen, covering the era from 1964 to 1990.
The Oscar and BAFTA-winning actress also has the critically-acclaimed shows Fleabag, Flowers, Broadchurch, The Favourite, The Father and The Lost Daughter in her filmography.