Born in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and raised in Nairobi, Kenya, he moved with his family to Britain as a 14-year-old in February 1968.Dowd, Vincent (7 January 2020), "Theatre pioneer Jatinder Verma: 'I was simply not wanted'", BBC News. He attended York University and Sussex University. Verma was one of the co-founders of Tara Arts, a British Asian theatre company that was created in response to the racial tensions in Britain in the late 1970s. Verma directed Tara's very first production (an adaptation of a Tagore play) at Battersea Arts Centre in August 1977. Later on, Tara Arts got its own theatre on Garratt Lane, Earlsfield in South London."Meeting the team: Jatinder Verma Consultant Artistic Director", Tara Arts.
