Nikesh Shukla

Nikesh Shukla (born 8 July 1980) is a British author and screenwriter. His writing focuses on race, racism, identity, and immigration. He is the editor of the 2016 collection of essays The Good Immigrant, which features contributions from Riz Ahmed, Musa Okwonga, Bim Adewunmi, and Reni Eddo-Lodge, among others. With Chimène Suleyman, he co-edited the 2019 follow-up collection called The Good Immigrant: 26 Writers Reflect On America.

Early life and career
Shukla was born to Indian immigrants in the London suburb Harrow. He attended Merchant Taylors' school in Northwood, leaving in 1996, then Dr. Challoner's Grammar School.

Literature
Shukla is the author of three novels: Coconut Unlimited (2010), Meatspace (2014) and The One Who Wrote Destiny (2018) and the council of good friends(2020)

He is also the author of two books for Young Adults: Run, Riot (2018) and The Boxer (2019).

In 2017 he one of was one of the co-founders of the Jhalak Prize awarded annually to British or British resident writers of colour.

In 2019 he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He was a Rathbones Folio Prize Mentor in 2019–2020.

Brown Baby, a memoir addressed to his young daughter, was published in 2021. He hosts a podcast of the same name.

Film
Shukla co-wrote the short film Two Dosas with Sarmad Masud. It starred Himesh Patel. After Danny Boyle awarded the film Best Short at the 2017 Shuffle Festival, Boyle cast Patel in the title role of Jack in Yesterday (2019).

Journalism
Shukla has been a columnist for The Observer's magazine supplement and The Pool.

Radio and podcasts
In January 2019, Shukla appeared in series 47 of the BBC Radio 4 show Great Lives, nominating Pakistani wrestler The Great Gama (1878–1960).

Shukla hosted a podcast called The Subaltern podcast, in which he has conversations with writers about writing. He also co-hosted a podcast called Meat Up, Hulk Out with sci-fi writer James Smythe.

Filmography

 * 2014: Two Dosas (short film) - co-writer
 * 2011: Kabadasses (TV series)

Honours

 * 2010: Costa Book Awards, first novel, short-list for Coconut Unlimited
 * 2010: Desmond Elliott Prize, long-list for Coconut Unlimited
 * 2014: Aspen Shortsfest's "Best Comedy" Short Film for Two Dosas
 * 2013: Sabotage Awards, Best Novella for The Time Machine
 * 2014: London Calling Plus "Jury Award" for Two Dosas
 * 2014: Shuffle Festival, Best Short for Two Dosas
 * 2016: Liberty Human Rights Award, shortlist
 * 2016: Books Are My Bag Readers' Awards, reader's choice for The Good Immigrant
 * 2016: British Book Awards, Book of the Year short-list for The Good Immigrant
 * 2016: The Bookseller's 100 most influential people in publishing
 * 2016: Foreign Policy's 100 Global Thinkers
 * 2019: Time magazine, one of the twelve leaders shaping the next generation of artists
 * 2019: CrimeFest Awards, Best YA for Run, Riot
 * 2019: National Book Awards, short-list for Run, Riot
 * 2019: Royal Society of Literature, Fellow
 * 2021: Declined offer of MBE for services to literature in the Queen's birthday honours list.