Ayesha Madon: Departing from the expected

Is being South Asian all there is to a South Asian character on TV? Breaking beyond what is expected of brown faces on our screens, Ayesha Madon, lead of the Netflix hit 'Heartbreak High', speaks with SBS Spice about how doing a role that didn't center around her identity alone was game changing. She says there is no gatekeeper, one has to make their own gate. The question remains: where do we begin?

South Asians are having a moment on TV.

When Heartbreak High hit Aussie Netflix in 2022, it quickly spread in its appeal. After a map detailing sexual secrets of students is discovered graffitied on the wall of their high school, the students are forced to attend a new sexual education course.

What follows is a string of heartbreaks, few firsts, some lasts and at the centre of the drama is our guest, Ayesha Madon aka Amerie Wadia.

Madon plays an Indian-Australian student in the show but the storyline goes far beyond her background. Like a typical teenager, she is simply trying to make the best sense of the world around her.

Being a First-Gen, it was really refreshing to see a role that I could go for as a Parsi woman that didn't center around me being Parsi.

Ayesha Madon

With the recently released Season 2 of Heartbreak High, Madon is just getting started.

Also a singer, her single 'Eulogy' released last month, a musical journey she considers even more personal than acting because in this chapter, she gets to show who she really is rather than being perceived as a fictional character alone.

Spending time with our co-host Suhayla Sharif in our Sydney studios, Ayesha Madon lets us in on what's next for her and why she would be cautious of being friends with her on-screen self, Amerie.

SBS Spice breaks new ground with English language content for young South Asians in Australia by exploring what is making us tick or ick. Find us in your podcast app such as the SBS Audio app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or LiSTNR and follow us on Instagram @SBSSpice