Jamila Ranjha is a student in Jeremy Brown‘s EFL class. She is played by Jamila Massey.
Jamila is a housewife from India who likes to knit. She is a Christian, though she exclaims “Buddha!” when the students argue over which religion is the true one, possibly implying that she was once a Buddhist. She lives in a flat in a predominantly Indian neighborhood, and has many family members living in Birmingham.
Jamila is initially one of the worst speakers in the class and often switches to Urdu out of frustration. Her catchphrase early in the series is “Gud hefening”, which is how she pronounces “Good evening” after learning the phrase from Mr. Brown. Her English substantially improves in later episodes, though she retains a habit of adding “be” verbs to her sentences unnecessarily. She has a very close friendship with almost all her classmates, especially Taro and Ali, and usually refers to Mr. Brown as “masterji”.
