Karen  Johal

British south Asian actor Karen Johal is most notably known for playing Nicole Shelley on the Emmy Award winning Apple TV+ series ‘Ted Lasso’.

Born and raised in Birmingham, England, Karen trained at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Manhattan, New York. After graduating in 2017, her first role was in the off-Broadway play ‘Camel’ written by actor and comedian Charly Clive. She received rave reviews for her debut in several publications including The Huffington Post. New York Theatre Review compared her comedic delivery to American actor Jane Garafolo and Theater is Easyremarked ‘[Karen Johal] captures Ezme's emotional turns and gives an engaging performance, stealing every scene she is in’.

Shortly after, Karen would appear in Oskar Eustis’ production of ‘Julius Caesar’ at Shakespeare in the Park for The Public Theatre, opposite Corey Stoll, Elizabeth Marvel and John Douglas Thompson. Later that year she would make it all the way to Carnegie Hall in OMNYC’s 'The Journey to America’. Karen also originated the role of Nasim, in Douglas Carter Beane’s ‘Me and the Girls: a Noël Coward musical’ acting opposite Scottish actor Alan Cumming.

Karen’s on-screen work includes the Amazon Prime short film ‘Frank’s Plan’, the award winning indie-short ‘Man on the phone’ and the MTV short film ‘The Waves’, produced by The Corner Shop and directed by BAFTA winner Sindha Agha. In 2022 she starred in the BBC series ‘Phoenix Rise’ playing Noreen Khan in the first two seasons, before leaving the show to join the cast of the hit television series ‘Ted Lasso’.

As Nicole Shelleyshe starred opposite Jason Sudeikis, Brett Goldstein, Hannah Waddingham and Nick Mohammed. In July 2023, the third series received an astounding 21 Emmy award nominations across 15 categories, including Best Comedy and received a nomination for Best Ensemble at The (SAG) Actor Awards.

Karen’s career so far has spanned across the US and the UK, in 2021 she played the female lead in the regional premiere of David Harrower’s ‘Blackbird’. Una, a deeply traumatised woman seeking answers from an abusive past relationship, has most notably been played by actors Michelle Williams, Jodhi May and Rooney Mara. For her portrayal, Karen was highly praised by the critics. Theatre & Other Things LDN wrote ‘A rising star, [Karen Johal] broke our hearts during her monologue confronting Ray. The level of vulnerability she is able to portray on stage is something we rarely see, and she had us at every word’.

Other theatre credits include leading roles in Duncan MacMillan’s ‘People, Places and Things’, Moira Buffini’s ‘Welcome to Thebes’ and in Ayad Akhtar’s ‘The Who and the What’ at The English Theatre of Hamburg in Germany. As Zarina, the protagonist, a Harvard educated Pakistani-American woman. Karen was described as ‘convincing, confident and a brilliant actor’ for her performance in The Hamburger Abendblatt, Die Austige and Theater Time. The production directed by Clifford Dean was also nominated for a Rolf Mare Theater Preis in 2023.

Most recently she joined the research and development stage for the upcoming play ‘I am the ghost of Quandeel Baloch’ written by Guleraana Mir at the Birmingham Hippodrome, and she appeared in the play ‘Why are you here ?’ performing at the An Tain Arts Centre in Dundalk, Ireland.

Karen is currently in production on the fourth season of the hit Netflix series ‘The Diplomat’ starring Keri Russel, Rufus Sewell, Alison Janney and Bradley Whitford.