Marvyn Harrison Meets Poppy Jay: Diagnosed With ADHD 24 Hours Before This Interview

About this episode

Poppy Jay shares her personal journey and experiences, including her recent ADHD diagnosis, in a candid conversation with Marvyn Harrison.

Poppy Jay arrives with no prep. What follows is one of the rawest conversations on this channel. Director, writer, comedian, and co-host of the cult podcast Brown Girls Do It Too, Poppy walks me through ten photos from her life, and each one opens a door she wasn't planning to open. We talk about the forced marriage she gave in to as the eldest of six daughters in a strict Bengali Muslim household. The father who once ruled the home and now sends her photos of the prawns he cooks. The nickname "Pitbull Poppy" she earned on set, and the uniform she wears so men stop scrutinising her. The year 2025, when she didn't work for twelve months despite being on billboards and buses, and ended up frying chips at her brother-in-law's Philly cheesesteak shop on the way to award ceremonies she'd been nominated for. She got her ADHD diagnosis 24 hours before we recorded. She tells me why the NHS questionnaire didn't account for immigrant kids who weren't allowed to be disruptive. We get into the Bangladeshi heroin epidemic of the 1990s nobody covered. The grooming gangs conversation she's been afraid to have on camera. The night in a Leicester Square pub where a friendly white stranger turned…

People in this episode

Host: Marvyn Harrison

Guest: Poppy Jay

Topics covered

• ADHD
• Bengali culture
• immigrant experience
• mental health
• comedy
• societal issues

Keywords

• Brown Girls Do It Too
• forced marriage
• Bangladeshi heroin epidemic
• grooming gangs
• NHS

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Brown Girls Do It, The Marvyn Harrison Podcast

Places: Philly, England, Britain

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