Mandana was born in 1967 to her Welsh father and Iranian Mother. Her Head of English encouraged her to take up acting when she was unsure what she wanted to do with her life. She began building up her CV and one of her first jobs was an usherette in London's West End. Then she got into drama school (the same one attended by Bad Girls (1999) co-star...
I love how she is incredibly outspoken, honest and intelligent and not scared. Playing someone as confident as she is, I think it would be great to be like that. Sometimes it's hard to achieve because I'm not like that. - on her character Nikki Wade