Afshan Azad is one of the two actresses who have played Padma Patil in the Harry Potter films. She is of Bangladeshi ancestry. The casting agents visited her school and she went for the auditions with her friends. She was a fan of Harry Potter before she got into the films. Afterwards she became very serious about acting in the films. She is currently living in Manchester, she is a Muslim, of Bengali descent.
Afshan and her co-star Shefali Chowdhury became very close after acting together in Goblet of Fire. Azad is also very close friends with co-stars Bonnie Wright and Katie Leung who play Ginny Weasley and Cho Chang respectively in the films. Afshan was an A-level student who studied Chemistry, English and Media Studies at Xaverian College
