International Women's Day is taking place on March 8 as a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women and to celebrate to take a look at some of the achievements of the best known an most influential woman from the Portsmouth area.
1. Inspiring woman
The Portsmouth area has connections with so many inspiring and well-known women Photo: UGC
2. Geeta Basra
Bollywood across Geeta Basra was born and raised in Portsmouth and could be regularly found serving customers behind the counter of 'Stop and Go' in Arundel Street run by her parents. The Portsmouth High School student originally planned to be a criminal psychologist but moved to Mumbai to purse her Bollywood dream and is now best known for Dil Diya Hai (2006), Zila Ghaziabad (2013) and Mr Joe B. Carvalho (2014) and has been married to cricketer Harbhajan Singh since 2015. Photo: ian hargreaves
3. Suzi Ruffell
Suzi Ruffell is a Portsmouth-born comedian, writer and actress who regularly appears on BBC Radio 4, appearing on The Now Show and The News Quiz, she was nominated for She attended St Edmunds School before taking a theatre course at Chichester College. She has been performing stand-up comedy full time since 2012 and has supported Alan Carr, Kevin Bridges, Josh Widdicombe, Joe Lycett, Romesh Ranganathan and Katherine Ryan on national tours. Photo: Contributed
4. Amanda Holden
Portsmouth-born Amanda Holden is an English actress, media personality, and singer and is currently one of the country's best-known broadcasters. She attended Bishop's Waltham Junior School and then Swanmore College before relocating to Bournemouth. Since 2007, she has been a judge on the television talent show competition Britain's Got Talent on ITV and she also co-hosts the Heart Breakfast radio show with Jamie Theakston. Amanda played the title role in the musical stage show Thoroughly Modern Millie in 2004, for which she was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award and her acting credits on television include Kiss Me Kate , Cutting It and Wild at Heart. She has also presented various television shows for ITV. In 2020, she released her debut studio album, Songs from My Heart, which reached the top 5 on the UK Albums Chart. Photo: John Phillips/Getty images