(Photo: Getty Images) 
Happy birthday Archie Panjabi! The Emmy-winning British actress has just turned 50, so we're taking the opportunity to get a little better acquainted. You may know her from The Good Wife, The Fall and Shetland, but here are some things you probably don't know about her.
1. She auditioned three times for the BBC's flagship soap opera EastEnders, only to miss out every time.
During a 2018 interview with The Guardian, Panjabi said she was "heartbroken" not to have landed a role in the long-running series. However, she added in another interview, around a year later, that not getting cast in EastEnders "didn't turn out too badly" for her in the end.
2. Early in her career, she was told that her race would hold her back.
Thankfully, Panjabi wasn't put off by this dispiriting advice. "A U.S. talent agent once told me an Indian woman could never have a career in Hollywood," she told The Guardian. "It was heartbreaking, but she was merely highlighting the harsh reality at the time."
3. She has taken it upon herself to challenge stereotypes.
Panjabi told The Irish Independent that when Ridley Scott cast her in his 2006 movie A Good Year, she asked to play the role with "a lot more attitude" to make the character more rounded. "When I started, many of the roles for Asian actors were quite clichéd, but I tried to change that," she added. "When I went in for auditions, I'd try and figure out what made it cliché and open it up. I'd say, 'Could I try for that other role?' or 'Why don't we play her like this instead?'"
4. She credits Ridley Scott with helping her to land The Good Wife.
Panjabi told The Irish Independent that she was "at the bottom of the pile" to play private investigator Kalinda Sharma, a role she later won an Emmy for. "They wanted me to send in a show reel, but I didn't want to put it together because I'd been rejected by a number of American productions at that point," she recalled. "Once they'd been through everyone else and couldn't find someone, I eventually did. The show reel included a quote from Ridley Scott, so when they saw it, they phoned him up and asked him about me. He must have said something good because I got the part."
5. She has been married since 1998.
However, Panjabi has said she doesn't talk about her husband, Rajesh Nihalan, a tailor, in interviews because she is "very private."
6. In real life, she isn't really like the characters she plays.
Panjabi considers herself much more lighthearted than people expect her to be. "My characters are much more serious than I am, which amuses the people that know me well," she told The Irish Independent. "I feel I'm always joking around, but all my characters seem to be tough, strong, and very serious."
7. Her mother wanted her to become a doctor.
However, her mother said she would support her daughter's acting ambitions provided she completed her education. Panjabi duly graduated from London's Brunel University with a degree in Management Studies. "Bless my mother, I went ice skating, swimming, ballet, and then when I said I really wanted to act she put me in for elocution lessons and drama on the side," Panjabi told The Times of London. "I think she thought that would satisfy my creative desires."
8. She made history in 2010 by becoming the first Asian actor to win an Emmy.
Panjabi took home the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series award for her performance in The Good Wife. As Buzzfeed reports, she told journalists in the press room after her victory: "Most of the roles I was ever offered and did play were so relevant to my ethnicity, and I’m very grateful for those opportunities. But I’ve always believed that I’d like to play a role where my ethnicity isn’t the most important thing. So to be given this opportunity to play such an interesting character where, up until now, we haven’t even mentioned her ethnicity, is a dream come true."
9. She's a master of accents.
During an appearance on Harry Connick Jr.'s chat show, Panjabi treated the host to bursts of French, British Cockney and Indian accents. 

10. Filming a scene for The Fall where she kissed Gillian Anderson contributed to her decision to leave The Good Wife. 
Specifically, because Panjabi realized that Kalinda's unswerving confidence had begun to affect her acting approach. "When I was kissing her, Allan Cubitt, the show's creator and director, had to say, 'Archie, can you hold back?' because Gillian was supposed to take me by complete surprise," she told the Belfast Telegraph. "I didn't think that I was very forward in (the scene), but obviously after a while a character starts to affect you. I thought, 'OK, I think it's time to go now.'"
Do you have a favorite Archie Panjabi role to date?