Indian-American Actress and Author Sheetal Sheth Stays True to Herself to Bring Protagonist Diversity into Mainstream Media

Stories of Transformation

When asked what having cancer has taught her, Sheetal Sheth says that she feels lucky. Cancer is terrible, no doubt about it, but in this conversation, Sheetal brings to light ways in which we can reframe the terrible situations life throws at us.

Being a cancer survivor is just one layer of Sheetal. Part of her life’s work has been to demonstrate how multidimensional we all are and that we cannot be put in a box with one label. Just one of the ways Sheetal has brought this to life is through her children’s book series, Always Anjali, the first children’s book where an Indian-American girl is the hero, and where cliche Indian cultural themes are not the main focus of the story.

Sheetal is Indian-American, AND an award winning actress, author, producer, mother, wife, woman, child of immigrants, someone who values justice and fairness, and more.

In this episode of Stories of Transformation, we unpack her experiences of being raised in a traditional Indian household while living in America, the differences in how she is raising her children vs. how she was raised, her struggles early on as an actress where she literally lost jobs for refusing to whitewash her name, and more.

For full show notes: https://www.baktashahadi.com/podcast

Connect with Sheetal Sheth

Website: https://www.sheetalsheth.com/

Book: https://www.alwaysanjali.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/sheetalsheth

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beneaththesheetz/

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Produced by: Dana Drahos

Edited by: Joseph Gangemi

Digital Marketing by: Katherine An

Theme music by: Qais Essar

Artwork by: Masheed Ahadi

Episode Music Credits:

Philip Daniel Zach

The SoundKeeper