Omid Djalili

Template:Short description Template:Use British English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox comedian Omid Djalili (Template:Langx; born 30 September 1965) is an English comedian, actor, and writer.

Early life and educationEdit

Djalili was born on 30 September 1965 in St Mary Abbots Hospital in Kensington, London, to Iranian Baháʼí parents Ahmad and Parvaneh Djalili. His parents emigrated from Tehran to London in 1958. He has a brother and sister. His mother was a dressmaker who at one point assisted Iranian singer Googoosh. His father was a liaison officer at the Iranian embassy in which he would provide medical assistance.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He was also a photographer whose pictures ended up in the newspaper Kayhan.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="auto1">Template:Cite news</ref> He attended Holland Park School where he failed A-level exams a record six times<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and faked his results to gain entry to Ulster University in Coleraine, Northern Ireland, studying English and theatre studies having been turned down by 16 drama schools.<ref>Template:Cite interview</ref><ref name=":0" /> Djalili cited Jack Lemmon, Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep, Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken and Julia Roberts as influences.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Comedy careerEdit

The first significant success of his stand-up comedy career was at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1995 with "Short, Fat Kebab Shop Owner's Son", followed by "The Arab and the Jew" with Jewish comedian Ivor Dembina in 1996.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Djalili has performed in numerous countries, including Australia, Ireland, Sweden, Belgium, Canada, and the United States, where he had his own HBO Special.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Djalili took part in a show for Comic Relief after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami and also in 2005 he appeared on the British TV show Top Gear as a celebrity driver.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Cbignore</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The same year he broke Edinburgh Festival box office records with over 16,500 ticket sales.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In 2006, Sky Television chose him to be the face of their Saturday night film premières, and he also announced a new tour of the UK called 'No Agenda', from January 2007 until March 2007, covering 23 different dates. The No Agenda tour DVD was released in late 2007.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

On 26 October 2007, he guest-presented the BBC political quiz show Have I Got News for You.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Omid Djalili Show started on BBC1 on 17 November 2007. The series was a mix of sketches and stand-up material. A second series was recorded in late 2008 and broadcast on BBC 1 on 20 April 2009. He performed on We Are Most Amused on ITV1 to mark Prince Charles's 60th birthday in 2008 and on We Are Most Amused and Amazed to mark his 70th birthday in 2018.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2023, Djalili was due to appear in the Omid Djalili and Friends show in Market Drayton at the Festival Drayton Centre. Djalili did not appear in the tour due to threats against Djalili relating to the Gaza war.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Acting careerEdit

Djalili has appeared in a number of films, most notably Gladiator, The Mummy, Mean Machine, The World Is Not Enough, Alien Autopsy, Spy Game, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Grow Your Own, Notting Hill, Mr Nice, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Sex and the City 2 and provides his voice in Over the Hedge.

He has observed that he usually appears as a generic Middle Eastern background character in many of these films, often commenting that he appears in the James Bond film as the "Second Azerbaijani oil pipe attendant".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He appeared as Nasim in 22 episodes of the U.S. sitcom Whoopi, starring Whoopi Goldberg, and picked up an international film award for Best Supporting Actor in Casanova, starring alongside Heath Ledger and Jeremy Irons.

On 12 February 2009, producer Cameron Mackintosh announced that Djalili would appear as the second Fagin in the new West End production of Oliver! at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London. Omid took over from Rowan Atkinson, who had been contracted until 18 July 2009.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2009, Djalili became the voice of Yusuf Amir in the popular gaming series Grand Theft Auto. He took up the role in the Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony spin-off game. In 2010, he starred in the David Baddiel-scripted film The Infidel.

In 2017, Djalili appeared in an acclaimed performance of Fiddler on the Roof at the Chichester Festival Theatre.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In 2023, Djalili reprised his role as the voice of Yusuf Amir in the fifth installment of the popular gaming series Grand Theft Auto. He reprised the role as part of the Grand Theft Auto Online DLC, The Chop Shop.

Other activitiesEdit

In 2008, he was an official festival judge for the Noor Iranian Film Festival. In June 2010, Djalili appeared in a Meltdown Festival concert<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> given by the Philharmonia Orchestra at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall, performing the part of the narrator in 'Rubaiyat', a tone poem by American classical composer Alan Hovhaness which sets the words of Omar Khayyám to music.

In February 2022 he shot two pilots of a chat show called Tonight With Omid for the BBC, one version in Persian (for BBC Persian) and another in English.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In August 2023, Djalili appeared on ITV's Kate Garraway's Life Stories series 22, episode 3.<ref name=":0" />

AwardsEdit

Djalili has won awards for his comedy. These include the EMMA Award, Time Out Award, and LWT Comedy Award for Best Stand-up Comedian, Spirit of the Fringe Award as well as the One World Media Award for his Channel 4 documentary, Bloody Foreigners.

He has also been nominated for awards, such as the Perrier Award for Best Comedian, the Gemini Award for Best Comedy Performance of 2003, the South Bank Award for Best Comedy of 2003, the Royal Television Society Award for Best Stand-up, and the European TV Award for his Bloody Foreigners.

Personal lifeEdit

In 1992, Djalili married actress Annabel Knight, with whom he has three children. He is a practising Baháʼí.<ref name="auto1"/><ref name="auto">Template:Cite news</ref>

Djalili was present for the Iran Solidarity Rally that took place in Trafalgar Square in January 2023 in support of protests in the wake of Jina (or Mahsa) Amini's custody and death.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

FilmographyEdit

FilmEdit

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1999	The Mummy	Warden Gad Hassan
	Notting Hill	Cashier at Coffee Shop
	Mad Cows	George
	The World Is Not Enough	Foreman
2000	Gladiator	Slave Trader
2001	Spy Game	Beirut: Doumet
2001	Mean Machine	Raj
2002	Anita and Me	Uncle Amman
2003	Cross My Heart	Riz
2004	Deadlines	Abdul Sayyaf
	The Calcium Kid	Herbie Bush
	Modigliani	Pablo Picasso
	Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow	Kaji
2005	Casanova	Lupo
2006	Alien Autopsy	Melik
2006	Over the Hedge	Tiger	Voice role
2007	Grow Your Own	Ali
2007	Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End	Askay / Pusasn
2008	The Love Guru	Guru Satchabigknoba
2009	Dead Man Running	"Bald Fat Fuck"
2010	The Infidel	Mahmud Nasir
	Sex and the City 2	Mr. Safir
	Animals United	Bongo	Voice role
	Mr. Nice	Saleem Malik
2011	Big Fat Gypsy Gangster	Jik Jickkles
2015	Shaun the Sheep Movie	Trumper	Voice role
2015	Molly Moon and the Incredible Book of Hypnotism	Barry Rix
2016	The Comedian's Guide to Survival	Himself
2018	Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again	Greek customs officer
2018	The Nutcracker and the Four Realms	Cavalier
2023	Love Again	Mohsen
2023	Journey to Bethlehem	Melchior
2025	In Your Dreams	Sandman (voice)	In production

TelevisionEdit

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1995	Dressing for Breakfast	Turkish Man	Series 1 episode 4
1996	The Friday Night Armistice	Himself
1998	Alexei Sayle's Merry-Go-Round	Various
1998	Barking	Various Role	2 episodes
1999	The Ruth Rendell Mysteries	Mr. Kaiafas	Episode: "The Lake of Darkness"
	The Bill	Yilmaz Demirtas
	Cleopatra	Storemaster	2 episodes
	Coming Soon	Amir Hassan	TV movie
1999–2001	Small Potatoes	Hoss	13 episodes
2000	Black Books	Trebor
2000	Jason and the Argonauts	Castor	2 episodes
2001	So What Now?	Ken
2001	Baddiel's Syndrome	Chef
2002	Relic Hunter	Ahmid
2002–03	Dinotopia: the Series	Zipeau (voice)	10 episodes
2002–03	Lenny Henry in Pieces		2 episodes
2003	Between Iraq and a Hard Place	Iraqi Television Host	TV movie
2003–04	Whoopi	Nasim Khatenjami	22 episodes
2004	Live at the Apollo	Himself
2005	Chopra Town	Ali Ergun	TV movie
	One Night Stand	Himself	HBO
	My Family and Other Animals	Spiro	TV movie
2006	Rob Brydon's Annually Retentive	Himself
	Jack Dee's Lead Balloon	Mr. Tilak
	Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law	Perfectionist (voice)	1 episode
2007	TV Heaven, Telly Hell	Guest
	Have I Got News for You	Himself
	Premier League All Stars	Chelsea Celebrity player
	Dawn French's Boys Who Do Comedy	Himself
2007–09	The Omid Djalili Show	Himself, presenter, various roles	12 episodes
2008	Never Mind the Buzzcocks	Guest panellist
2008	Headcases	Mohamed Al Fayed (voice)	1 episode
2009	Would I Lie To You?	Guest panellist	1 episode
2011	The Paul Reiser Show	Habib	7 episodes
2012	Omid Djalili's Little Cracker	Tobacconist
2013	Splash!	Contestant
2013	Moonfleet	Aldobrand	2 episodes
2014	The Great Sport Relief Bake Off	Guest presenter	1 episode
2014	Question Time	Guest panellist
2015–16	Dickensian	Mr. Venus	11 episodes
2016	Insert Name Here	Guest panellist
2016	The One Show	Guest presenter	1 episode
2016–18	Stan Lee's Lucky Man	Kamil	9 episodes
2017	Thunderbirds Are Go	Horse Williams (voice)	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
2018	All Together Now Celebrities	Contestant	2nd Place
2019	Queens of Mystery	Guy Ashton	2 episodes
2019–2020	His Dark Materials	Dr. Lanselius	S1&2, Episodes: "Armour" & "The Cave"
2020	The Letter for the King	Sir Fantumar	6 episodes
	The Chase: Celebrity Special	Contestant	Series 10, Episode 5, 2020-10-10
	Sunday Brunch	Guest	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
	Celebrity Mastermind	Contestant	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
	Secrets of the Apollo	Guest contributor	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
2020–21	Winning Combination	Presenter
2021	Michael McIntyre's The Wheel	Celebrity expert	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
2021	James Martin’s Saturday Morning	Guest	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
2022	Tonight with Omid	Host	Pilot in Persian and English
2023-25	The Change	Steve	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
2023	Midsomer Murders	Othello Khan	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Video gamesEdit

Year	Title	Role
2009	50 Cent: Blood on the Sand	Eddie
2009	Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony	Yusuf Amir
2023	Grand Theft Auto Online: The Chop Shop	Yusuf Amir

Selected theatreEdit

Oliver!, as Fagin, Director Rupert Goold, Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, 2009<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Fiddler on the Roof, as Tevye, Director Daniel Evans, Chichester Festival Theatre, 2017<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

ReferencesEdit

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External linksEdit

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