Meet Hazel, you’ve probably never heard of her…I hadn’t before a few weeks ago and then whilst doing my show, everyone was continually requesting songs from this new Bollywood film called ‘Bodyguard‘.

I had to know what all the fuss was about so I went to see the movie with a friend. Just before I did I got a call from someone asking if I’d like to interview someone called Hazel…my first reaction was – “who-what-now?”

He went on to explain that she was a actress in this new film and so I said, sure, lets go for it.

In the Movie Hazel plays a character called ‘Maya’ who is the best buds with ‘Divya’, played by Kareena Kapoor.

Hazel and I connected over Skype and spent over an hour nattering away and I was blown away by her story.

She got rejected by 13 of the big performing arts schools in London. She tried to stand out by using the Vagina Monologues, as her monologue; it backfired!

Hazel appeared in Harry Potter in small roles and was also doing some modelling but didn’t get any big breaks.

She then spent a few years in Mumbai, getting small amounts of work but again still not cracking the big time. Eventually, after running short of money she came back to London.

Whilst in London, she happened to get invited to a to the filming of a movie in which Bollywood superstar, Salman Khan, was starring. Salman approached her because he thought she might be cold and gave her his coat.

She then told him her story and he said to her, “don’t give up, go back to Mumbai and he’d try and help her”. Things didn’t happen straight away, it still took some a long time before her first big break but now just the door has just begun to open.

For me, when I heard her story, in many ways I could relate but the key thing that stood out was that fact she persisted despite the early setbacks.

I’ve always said that you never know which door, which event, or which opportunity is going to be your king-maker. You just have to keep going for long enough to allow that moment to come.

If you’ve just started a new venture, don’t give up, keep going, no matter the setbacks, you too could be the next Hazel.

Even though Bollywood is the biggest film industry in the world, no doubt, we’ll be seeing much more of Hazel on the big screen in Hollywood too. Keep an eye out for her!

Hear a snip of her story below:

And just for fun – Hazel telling me a joke…

Last Friday I had the great privilege of interviewing a rising star of t.v. and music, Karen David. She was born in the Himalayas and has been acting for quite some time.

Karen is currently on BBC1 Drama, Waterloo Road and plays the new Spanish Teacher, Franchesca.

I’ve only just seen the first two episodes of season 6 and now I am totally hooked. Karen, if you’re reading this…damn you!

She is also an amazing singer and has just released a new song called ‘Hypnotize’. I’ve uploaded the interview for you to listen to and you can also follow her on twitter.

I had so much fun doing the interview and she didn’t mind me poking fun at her. Have a listen and enjoy!

One thing I love about doing comedy and radio is that it has put me in touch with some amazing people. I managed to interview two such individuals recently and converted them into podcasts which you can listen to from here.

The first interview is with Nina Wadia who is a very well known comedy actress. She first shot to fame with the comedy sketch show Goodness Gracious Me and has more recently been a regular feature on the british soap Eastenders. I met her a couple of weeks ago and she was so friendly I just had to get an interview with her on the Breakfast Show!

The second Interview is with Priya Lakhani and she is the creator of the Masala Masala sauce range. She recently won the Business Entrepreneur Of The Year Award and I managed to get her for an interview on my Backchat Show.

Both interviews are so inspiring and entertaining and I felt greedy keeping them to myself so I just had to share them with you. Enjoy and feel free to leave some comments.

This morning on the Breakfast Show I was privileged to be able to interview Simona Brhlikova who is co-starring in a new movie alongside Wesley Snipes called ‘Gallowwalker’. Simona plays the character of ‘Kisscut’. She’s basically, one of the badies!

The movie is about a mysterious gunman, Aman (Snipes), who is the son of a nun who breaks her covenant with God to ensure his survival. This act brings a curse upon Aman – all those that die by his gun will return. Soon, he is hunted by a gang of his undead former victims, led by the vicious Kansa. Aman enlists Fabulos, a new young warrior, to fight by his side.

I asked Simona about the challenges of entering Hollywood and being a movie star to which she responded: “I’m not worried and I don’t feel competition from anyone. I am the only one on this planet who can offer my experience and skills and so I’ll just do what I know and love doing best and just keep going.”

The movie is set to be released later this year. I, for one, can’t wait and when it comes out I’m going annoy all my friends and shout at the cinema screen and say: “I interviewed her!”

Last Thursday I was fortunate to go see Dr John Demartini back in action again giving a wonderful talk about ‘The Riches Within’.

Last year I managed to spend the whole weekend with him at his ‘Breakthrough Experience’ in London and even so he still has a bottomless pit of knowledge to share with his audience.

I was also privileged enough to interview him as well for my radio show and so I posed some questions about how we can empower youth better and tackle some of the challenges we face.

You can listen to the recording by clicking ‘play’ below.

From the talk some of my favourite quotes were:

“Any part of your life that you do not empower someone else will overpower.”

“The master lives in a world of transformation and not the world of loss or gain.”

“Nothing is missing from your life. It’s just in a form you do not recognise.”

He’ll be back in London in March and so when he does I’ll be sure to post up a link of where you can get tickets to see this amazing speaker in action.

This week have a very some very interesting guests on the show!

The first guest is a director a new movie and is looking for people to audition for it. If you are aged 16 – 23 and want get a part in your first movie you definitely want to be listening in!

Our second guest is Sir Ken Robinson. For those who don’t know who he is take a look at this video from a Ted Talk by Sir Ken.

The Backchat Show – Every Sunday from 6 – 8pm. 89.6FM in West London or http://www.westsideradio.co.uk anywhere in the world!

Just yesterday afternoon I got a phone call from a friend, out of the blue, who works for BBC radio. He called an asked if I would like to be on the radio to talk about The Secret as a proponent in light of the recent articles on the Newsweek website. He informed that I would be debating with someone who was not a fan of the teachings of The Secret. I was up for the challenge and I had no idea what to expect. In fact I completely forgot to ask him when it was likely to take place. My initial thought was that it may be a proper debate, an hour long or so, in the studio with a proper discussion on it.

After having a late night last night, I was still in bed at 8am this morning when my phone rang. It was the radio station informing me that they wanted me live on air within 10 minutes! My first thought was: “Oh dear God no, I’ve just woken up, I had a blocked nose and a sore throat, why today of all days?” But, I agreed and tryed to slap myself a few times to wake up! I got myself as awake and fresh as I could but my I so focused on trying to feel better that I completely forgot to prep myself on what I was going to say. So I had absolutely no preparation time whatsoever but I accepted the challenge of the curve ball just thrown at me by the Universe.

The phone rang again and it was about 6 minutes after the first phone call. I was still a little dazed but I’ve always had an incredible knack of being alert instantaneously out of sleep if my phone rang so I was as ready as I could’ve been!

The conversation was between myself and a psycologist by the name of Caroline. Unfortunately, my memory has never been too great at even the best of times but at some point I will try and obtain either a recording or transcript of the session rather than try and recall what was said but all in all I feel that it went as well as it could’ve with such short notice.

After seeing The Secret last April it had always been one of my intentions to be some sort of spokesperson for it in some capacity within the U.K. and I guess in many ways the intention came to fruition. However, I don’t want it to end there, my intention goes much greater still but I do see this as a stepping stone to become a kind of U.K. representitive of The Secret.