Actress, Singer. A popular performer of both England and India, she shall perhaps be best remembered as the barmaid Poppy Morales of ITV’s classic series “Coronation Street”. Initially raised by her single mother, she studied dance then after moving with her father to London trained at the Arts Educational Schools. In 1988 Sophiya landed a gig as lead vocalist of the Warner Brothers band Akasa then in 1992 relocated to Hong Kong where she was a presenter for MTV Asia. Moving to Mumbai in 1997 she was seen on India’s Channel V and in 1999 made her Bollywood debut with “Khoobsurat”. Sophiya appeared in several movies including “Mangal Pandey: The Rising” (2005) and also attracted much positive notice by dancing in a Cadbury candy commercial. Returning to England in 2002 she made her West End bow as Miss Mona in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Bombay Dreams” and was also seen in 2005’s “The Far Pavillions”. She had a role in the 2008 feature “Wanted”, began her sixth month “Coronation Street” run in December of that year, and kept busy, in the final year of her life working on “BBC’s Fairy Tales” and “House of Anubis”. Until her final illness Sophiya was again in the West End as troop entertainer Sylvia of “Privates on Parade”; she died about two weeks after being diagnosed with cancer. A number of her performances are preserved as are some of her early vocals. (bio by: Bob Hufford)