Anjana Vasan, who is nominated for a BAFTA for Female Performance in a Comedy for We Are Lady Parts, is also known for starring in Black Mirror’s Demon 79 episode in season 6.

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Vasan recently made a cameo in season 7’s USS Callister: Into Infinity, a follow-up to the season 4 episode USS Callister.

She appears briefly on screen with her Demon 79 co-star Paapa Essiedu as they play gamers in the final scene attacking the spaceship the USS Callister.

"That cameo was a surprise," the Indian-Singaporean actor, 38, tells Radio Times exclusively.

"Paapa and I did a little set visit, because the team behind USS Callister were the same team that made Demon 79. It was around the time of the BAFTAs last year, and we were all nominated [for seven awards], and we wanted to do a set visit to celebrate.

"Our producer had this wonderful idea that maybe we should be in it. It was all very spontaneous and very quick."

She adds: "The truth is, we had no idea what the story was when we shot it, they just yelled some instructions at us.

"They gave us a brief context of what was happening in that scene. I was doing things, and I had no idea what they were going to use, or if we were going to get cut. It was a fun day on set, but I did not expect to be in another Black Mirror episode."

In USS Callister: Into Infinity, Captain Robert Daly (Jesse Plemons) is dead and the crew of the USS Callister, led by Captain Nanette Cole (Cristin Milioti), are stranded in an infinite virtual universe as they fight against 30 million players.

Several cast members returned to reprise their roles, including Milioti, Jimmi Simpson, Billy Magnussen, Milanka Brooks, Osy Ikhile, Paul G Raymond and Plemons as a digital clone version of Daly.

Demon 79 is set in the town of Tipley, an area of Greater Manchester, in 1979, where Nida Huq (Vasan) works at a department store selling shoes. She releases the demon Gaap (Essiedu), who tells Huq she has three days to make three human sacrifices. If she fails, it will lead to world destruction.

Vasan has recently played lead guitarist Amina in the all-female Muslim punk band Lady Parts for two seasons of We Are Lady Parts. She also starred in Wicked Little Letters and in the play A Streetcar Named Desire as Stella, for which she won an Olivier Award.

Black Mirror season 7 is available to stream on Netflix. Sign up for Netflix from £5.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.

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Authors

Laura RutkowskiJunior Commissioning Editor

Laura Rutkowski is the Junior Commissioning Editor at Radio Times magazine, where she looks after a column called "What it's like to…", which spotlights behind-the-scenes roles within the TV and film industry – from stunt coordinators to costume designers. She loves finding out how productions are made and enjoys covering a wide variety of genres. Laura is half-American and half-British and joined Radio Times in 2022. She has a degree in Psychology and a Master's in Magazine Journalism.

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