Afshan Azad-Kazi's character in Harry Potter explored as actress announces pregnancy with second baby

On March 10, 2024, Harry Potter star Afshan Azad-Kazi revealed in an Instagram post that she was pregnant with her second child. The Manchester native married Nabil Kazi back in 2018 and the couple already have a 2-year-old daughter named Kyra.

Celebrating Mother's Day, Afshan Azad-Kazi posted a picture of her first daughter pressing against her baby bump and the caption read:

"An extra special Mother’s Day this year to celebrate our growing family. 🥰🩷🤰👶🏽👨‍👩‍👧 Keep me and my family in your prayers. Allah Humma Barik. 🤲🏾"

The actor-turned-beauty influencer received congratulatory messages from a plethora of her Harry Potter co-stars including Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley), Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood), Scarlett Hefner (Pansy Parkinson), Jessie Cave (Lavender Brown), Chris Rankin (Percy Weasley), and Shefali Chowdhury (Parvati Patil).

For the unversed, Afshan Azad-Kazi played the part of Padma Patil in the Harry Potter film series. Padma was the identical twin sister of Parvati Patel. In the film franchise, Padma was an extremely intelligent Hogwarts student and a member of Gryffindor House. She also belonged to Dumbledore's Army and fought alongside her classmates in the Battle of Hogwarts.

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More about Afshan Azad-Kazi's character Padma Patil in the Harry Potter franchise

Padma Patil was one half of the Indian twin sister duo studying at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. In the Harry Potter books, Padma's sister Parvati Patel was assigned Gryffindor house and Padma was given Ravenclaw, a house defined by wit and intellect - qualities that resonated with Padma.

However, in the Harry Potter movies, Afshan Azad-Kazi's Padma Patil was sorted into the Gryffindor house along with her sister. The actresses who portrayed the twin sisters on-screen were not real-life siblings. Parvati was played by actress Shefali Chowdhury. According to the Harry Potter fandom, Afshan revealed that the directors cast the twins in the same house due to a fear of audiences not understanding that they were siblings.

One memorable moment from the series was when Padma was paired with Ron Weasley and Parvati ended up with Harry Potter, during the fourth year Yule ball. All four of them awkwardly sitting together, showing no romantic interest in their partners made an iconic scene.

In the books, unlike her sister, Padma became a Ravenclaw prefect in the fifth year. Both sisters were part of Dumbledore's Army and were sent home by their parents after Dumbledore's death in Half-Blood Prince. However, the duo returned to fight in the Battle of Hogwarts. Luckily, Padma was still alive at the end of the battle and could be seen in the Great Hall.

During the events of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Harry's son Albus, and Draco Malfoy's son Scorpius created an alternate timeline in their attempt to save Cedric Diggory. In this timeline, Padma Patil and Ron Weasly got married and even had a kid named Panju. However, in the end, the normal timeline was restored and the entire alternate timeline was erased.

One quite interesting fact is that Padma Patil was initially portrayed by a different actor named Sharon Sandhu in her first appearance in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. However, Sandhu was replaced by Afshan Azad-Kazi in the following movie and reprised her role till the end of the series.