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With over 25 years of experience as head of department, manager, broadcaster, producer, director, inclusion leader and columnist at brands like Netflix UK, Media Trust, Channel 4 News, MTV, early this year Jasmine Dotiwala hosted the first ever Digital Culture Awards for the Arts Council England and the Digital Culture Network. "Nowadays I still straddle the music industry but am mainly known for my media career which transcends popular culture and includes social and political content on TV, radio and digital platforms,” stated Dotiwala when responding to email queries from Parsiana.
Having won acclaim in the media for breaking new, young British talent as well as making ground-breaking, edgy TV programing with A list celebrities, in 2020 she joined the Netflix UK editorial and publishing team. "Everything I do today in the media is to empower and champion underrepresented groups who have not traditionally had opportunities and a voice in British media,” she stressed. She continues to report on arts and culture stories for Channel 4 News as also Sky News and appears as a regular panel guest on Jeremy Vine on 5, while writing columns and opinion pieces for print platforms like the HuffPost UK, The Voice, The Source magazine, The Metro, among others.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As head of Youth Media at Media Trust she oversaw media training programing from TV production to  radio podcasting to vlogging and more. Last year she initiated a two-week Get Started in TV production program. 
Taking her work as a mentor seriously, Dotiwala declared, "I have juxtaposed creating great content and stories about really exciting people with training young people from underrepresented backgrounds. I have learned as much from them as they have from me. I am a passionate advocate of two-way mentoring. If you ever think you know it all, you have already stopped midway… So many young talents from diverse backgrounds have shared so much with me to create great content for TV and creative industries. I am forever indebted to them. They motivate my work and being their ‘media mama’ has been some of the most satisfying work of my career.”
Her website jasminedotiwala.co.uk carries attestations from scores of mentees she had coached at London 360. "Her advice isn’t just about career moves but also about soft skills and life hacks, the stuff that most people probably wouldn’t care to teach… If I’m ever lost in my career, Jasmine is the first person I would think to go to.” Another wrote, "She is the media mother I never knew I needed!... Jasmine would always make sure to supplement our technical learning with her own master classes on the industry imparting best practices and personal skills to consider for longevity in the business…” One more appreciated,  "Unlike many people she has always been willing to share her little black book of contacts, be they A list or Z list… She is not a gate keeper, she is and always will be a gate opener…”
In the course of her career Dotiwala has had an opportunity to interact and befriend stars and celebrities. She refers to working under legendary news broadcaster Jon Snow who knew more about Zoroastrian history in Iran than she did! Starting her career at MTV around the same time that Beyonce and Jay Z were launching theirs, they "grew together.” It is with Mariah Carey though that she has built the most enduring ties from the time she was deputed by MTV to interview her in Capri, Italy. "When I broke up with a boyfriend years ago, she insisted I stay with her in New York for a while. She shared her family and many Christmases with me…”
The only child of Roshan and Noshir Dotiwala, Jasmine remembers her father telling her that at the time of her birth in the 1970s, crowds were cheering for a football match at the adjacent Wembley Stadium which could perhaps account for her love for cameras, applause and attention! An alumna of Featherstone High School, Hammersmith and West London College, she completed her BA Honors degree in media and communications, theater and dance, from Roehampton University. She stated that her weekend ballet dance classes as a child at Norwood Green Academy of Dance and the Babel School of Dance were crucial in developing soft skills like punctuality, responsibility, determination, resilience, practice, negotiation and healthy competition as also hard skills like dance technique, ballet notation, and the love for music, arts and culture.
Whether it was Persis Khambatta who played Lieutenant Ilia in Star Trek or BBC Channel 4 commissioner Farrukh Dhondy or newsreader on BBC World News Matthew Amroliwala, or writer and human rights campaigner Zerbanoo Gifford, Jasmine notes, "It’s inspiring to belong to a community of such high achievers.” She regrets however that Parsis are "not adequately represented on the media scene… (nor) amplified and celebrated enough by both the community and the industry.” Referring to the screen presence in the UK of actress Nina Wadia and celebrity TV chef Cyrus Todiwala, Jasmine pointed out, "There are a few of us but not many. I imagine much of that is to do with the fact that for so long media was not considered (by Parsis) a serious, respectful profession. Also, for the outside world, Parsis are folded into being the same as Asian and Indian so we tend to be overlooked there too.”
Happy to see Parsi women coming up in the media in the UK she plans "to amplify them and their careers” as also "connect generations and communities across continents through interactive digital social coffees.” Jasmine and fellow Zoroastrian Mark Summers (Mark Sumariwalla), a global casting agent, have been contemplating on creating an international platform or WhatsApp group to mentor younger Zoroastrians interested in the creative fields.
A life member of the Zoroastrian Trust Funds of Europe (ZTFE) and a volunteer for its Care in the Zoroastrian Community program that assists senior Parsis in the UK, Jasmine is a regular at the Zoroastrian Centre. She appreciates that after prayers and muktads, ZTFE president Malcolm Deboo reminds those present to eat, drink and be merry, to ensure that religion is perceived as "inclusive and joyful.” She is grateful too that her rebellious mind was permitted to question the status quo: "I have often advocated for us to have a good website. After all, a front facing shop window is crucial in this era. As a journalist I come from an industry where we analyze future trends and audience behaviors. In an era where global activists are campaigning for the environment, sustainability and climate change, I wonder how long the Zoroastrian practice of burning sandalwood can be sustainable and planet friendly.”
Having learnt to value the Ashem Vohu and Yatha Ahu Vairyo prayers as "a calming, focusing mantra in all areas of my life,” Jasmine says she recites them at times of unexpected anxiety when she is nervous before interviewing an A list superstar or restless in a traffic jam or doing exercises at the gym. "We Zoroastrians have our beautiful, melodic prayers as our own meditation.”