Sofia Hayat

Sofia Hayat is an English singer, actress and television personality known for her appearances in Indian television and cinema. She participated in Bigg Boss 7, the Indian version of Big Brother, in 2013.

Early and personal life Sofia Hayat was born to Muslim parents and raised in Gravesend, Kent in 1974. She is of Pakistani and Indian heritage and pursued a degree in performing arts from the University of Brighton.

In her autobiography Dishonoured: How I Escaped An Arranged Marriage And Survived An Honour Killing To Become A Star (2009; John Blake Publishing Ltd.) she discusses her troubled relationship with her conservative family including a forced arranged marriage in Pakistan and how she escaped it (including a subsequent planned honour killing) to begin a career in entertainment.

She married Romanian Vlad Stanescu in April 2017 but they separated after a year. Hayat claimed that he had tried to scam her out of her London property. In September 2013, Hayat was named on the FHM sexiest women in the world list, in position 81.

She was a contestant on Bigg Boss 7 in 2013. She entered as a wild card entry but got evicted on 12th week on 8 December 2013 (Day 84).

She has released two music albums, Dishonour and Wisdom of The Mother.

Television Year Name Role Notes Ref(s) 2002 Zee Music TV SKY Presenter 2003 Absolute Power Shanti 2004 Bollywood Star Contestant 2005 Footballers Wive$: Overtime Zuki 2008 Waterloo Road Jones 2009 Fur TV Lucia 2010 Jonathan Creek Selima El Sharad 2012 Superdude Host Along with Ashmit Patel & Madhura Naik 2013 Welcome – Baazi Mehmaan Nawazi Ki Contestant Bigg Boss 7 Evicted, Day 84 2014 The Midnight Beast Sloman's Wife 2016 Comedy Nights Bachao Guest Along with Rakhi Sawant

Filmography 2007 Exitz as Beauty 2008 Cash and Curry as Dharmi 2009 The Unforgettable 2012 Diary of a Butterfly (Hindi) as Carol 2012 Naachle London as Rani 2013 Bollywood Carmen for BBC as Sophia 2016 Six X as Ashmit Patel's Girlfriend 2017 Aksar 2

Discography 2015 "Mein Ladki Hoon" (Music Video)

Spirituality

In June 2016, Hayat announced that she had embraced spirituality and become a nun. She adopted the name Gaia Sofia Mother.