Karen Shenaz David
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Claim to fame
Karen is an actress, singer, director and songwriter. She co-stars as Princess Isabella, in ABC's medieval-comedy, musical, "Galavant". Created by Dan Fogelman. Music by Alan Menken.
Biography
Born in the foothills of the Himalayas, raised in Canada, and London, UK, Karen David forged her own , raised in Canada, and London. Her native Shillong is the capital of Western music in India. As a seventeen year old she won a prestigious scholarship to the Berklee College of Music studying Voice. She returned to the UK where Benny Anderson added her to the original stage cast of Mamma Mia!
She subsequently signed a record deal with BMG Europe with whom she enjoyed substantial success including a top ten single in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Soon afterwards, Karen was discovered by A.R Rahman, the composer who would famously achieve worldwide success for his score for Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire. Together they created the theme tune for the British drama Provoked in which Karen had a supporting role.
Acting and music would intertwine exactly as she'd originally desired. Her film career has included a starring role in the Scorpion King franchise and she was cast by Christopher Nolan in a supporting role in Batman Begins. But it is perhaps her television roles that have earned her the majority of her diehard fans in the UK and America. In BBC 1’s BAFTA nominated, primetime, Waterloo Road (2011) she played Francesca Montoya, a teacher who fell in love with a student. The storyline generated plenty of controversy however, more and more admirers fell for Karen’s compelling performance with the series generating over 9 million viewers per episode.
Karen also co-starred in an ensemble cast for two seasons on the hugely popular BBC comedy series, Pixelface, (produced by Graham Norton’s So Television). Her screen career has continued to flourish with subsequent work with Robert De Niro in the upcoming summer release, 'Red Lights', Kevin MacDonald and Rodrigo Cortes and with Francis Lawrence in Fox TV's new drama, Touch. Written by Heroes creator, Tim Kring, and starring Kiefer Sutherland and Danny Glover, Karen played Kayla Graham in the pilot episode, an aspiring singer who works in a menial job at her local call centre in Dublin, Ireland. The one hour special preview was a huge success and debuted in America to 12.5 million viewers, winning it's time slot, and making it the 2nd highest debut for a Fox drama in the past 5 years. She recently was seen in ABC's hit crime drama, Castle, playing 20 year old, Columbia University student, Sara El-Masri. The 2 part special gained the highest ratings for the show, and won it's time slots for the 18-49 year old demographic.
Karen acted in the new Jack Ryan movie, playing the supporting role of Penn, a tough and brave, FBI agent.
On the music front, Karen has written and recorded with some of the worlds’ top songwriters including Greg Wells (Adele, Katy Perry, Pink), Boots Ottestad (Robbie Williams, Katherine McPhee), Rob Wells (Selena Gomex, Adam Lambert, and Mika), Adam Argyle & Martin Brammer (Olly Murs), and Stefan Skarbek (Amy Winehouse, Lily Allen, Eliza Doolittle). She is working on her new EP, Dust to Stars. The songs on her new EP are all inspired by her experiences of playing Kayla Graham on 'Touch'. ‘Connected’ is a song Karen co-wrote with Boots Ottestad. “
‘Dust To Stars’ is particularly close to Karen’s heart as “it just sums up where I am at in my life, personally and musically”. Karen co- wrote it with Adam Argyle and Martin Brammer (Olly Murs), a team she had long admired and felt privileged to work with. “The track is beautifully simple and stark, with a little quirk - totally me!”. “I'm really excited about this EP. It's a taster of what's to come for my album and I'm so grateful for my role in Touch as it's been a huge inspiration for the record. This is really what I wanted to do right from when I was a child. I have my big sis to thank, she showed me Xanadu with Olivia Newton John when I was 4 years old and I wanted to act in movies and TV like her and sing great songs too. With a show like Touch, that's exactly what has happened”.
Record label
The Girl In The Pink Glasses/AWAL
