Somara is the eldest of three daughters born to a Sri Lanka-born mechanical engineer and his Malaysian wife (both studied at South Bank University, formerly Borough Polytechnic Institute).

[5][6] Somara has a published paper in the International Journal of Ventilation titled "Transient Solution Methods for Dynamic Thermal Modelling within CFD".

Between 2014 and late 2016, Somara worked on several BBC productions, including Tomorrow's Food,[10] Battle of Jutland[11] and Secrets of Orkney with Neil Oliver and Chris Packham,[12] and for Sky Atlantic.

[13] In early 2016, she also started working with PBS Digital Studios on Crash Course Physics (an online educational resource explaining complicated theories in a simple way with intuitive visuals).

"Scilence" later developed into several more Science podcasts including "Innervation", "eSTEAMd" and "Innovators Making a Difference",[22][23] as well as "Mission Responsible" which was co-created with Dr Simon Clark in 2024.

[26] She has also written seven STEM books for young people including Engineers Making a difference, which was published by Imperial College and The Gatsby Foundation.