Bank of Dave 2 stars a plethora of familiar faces including Happy Valley actor Amit Shah but what is there to know about him away from the Netflix film?
It’s been two years since the heartwarming Netflix true movie Bank of Dave first made its debut with The Diplomat star Rory Kinnear in the starring role as Dave Fishwick.
The sequel, The Loan Ranger, has been released on Netflix with Dave now getting help from various people in a bid to take down payday lenders and loan sharks taking advantage of vulnerable people.
Among them is Oliver (played by Amit Shah), a local Citizens Advice counsellor who is happy to assist with Dave’s mission and gets closer to American financial journalist Jessica (Chrissy Metz) in the process.
As Netflix subscribers continue to sink their teeth into Bank of Dave 2, here’s all there is to know about the man behind Oliver, actor Amit Shah.
Actor Amit Shah starred as pharmacist Faisal Bhatti in Happy Valley season three.
(Image: BBC)
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Early life
Shah was born in north London in 1981, although his parents were originally from Kenya and grandparents from Gujarat in India.
While his dad was an accountant, his mum worked at a health-food shop, and Shah hadn’t considered acting as a career before until he was cast as the lead in a school play when he was 16.
This fuelled his love of entertainment and so went on to study drama at Staffordshire University before attending the drama school LAMDA in west London.
In 2003, he was given permission by the principal to graduate early so he could begin rehearsals for Bombay Dreams, a West End musical produced by Lord Andrew Lloyd-Webber.
Happy Valley
Since the early noughties, Shah has popped up in some of the biggest shows around, including Benidorm, Casualty, Hustle, Black Mirror, Fresh Meat, Silent Witness, His Dark Materials, The Witcher and Mr Bates Vs The Post Office.
Among the most memorable though was his part as pharmacist Faisal Bhatti in the Sally Wainwright BBC drama Happy Valley.
His character had been illegally giving Joanna Hepworth (Mollie Winnard) diazepam but fans were left stunned as Faisal ended up killing her with a rolling pin.
However, Shah revealed that he didn’t know what was going to happen on the podcast Obsessed with…Happy Valley, explaining that they had filmed alternative versions of the finale.
The Royle Family star Sue Johnston will be starring in the mini-series Riot Women alongside actor Amit Shah.
(Image: GETTY)
He shared: “I still don’t know how it all ends up for him because we filmed the final scenes in various different ways.
“Sally [Wainwright, creator] was actually directing those. So it’s quite open and we did different options, so I’m not entirely sure how he’s gonna end up.”
Love life
The Bank of Dave star prefers to keep his personal life out of the spotlight so little is known about what he gets up to when he isn’t in front of the cameras.
But it is known that he is in a relationship with a woman called Amy Green who works as a voiceover artist and, according to her Instagram profile, is the “voice of Bixby”, the virtual assistant used on Samsung phones.
It isn’t known how long they have been together for but as Shah is wearing a ring on his wedding finger in some of his latest pictures, it is believed the pair are married.
What’s next
According to his IMDb page, Shah is going to feature as a character called Sanjay, in the six-part series Riot Women, which is now in post-production.
He will be starring alongside the likes of The Royle Family star Sue Johnston who is behind Auntie Mary.
There are numerous other well known faces in the cast too including Friday Night Dinner’s Tamsin Greig, The Larkins’ Joanna Scanlan and Alma’s Not Normal star Lorraine Ashbourne.
The synopsis reads: “Follows a group of middle-aged women, as they form a punk-rock band to participate in a talent contest”.
Bank of Dave 2: The Loan Ranger is available to watch on Netflix.