Aasif Mandvi

Early life

Mandvi was born in Bombay, in Maharashtra, India, into a Gujarati Muslim family of the Dawoodi Bohra caste.

His family moved to England, when he was a year old, settling in the West Yorkshire city of Bradford. His father, Hakim, who had originally come to work in textiles research at Bradford University, later ran a corner shop. His mother, Fatima, was a nurse. Mandvi attended the independent Woodhouse Grove School in Apperley Lane, and he identifies as a "working-class kid from Bradford".

In the early 80s, his father grew frustrated with Margaret Thatcher's administration and moved his family to the United States, settling in Tampa, Florida; when Mandvi was 16. He attended Chamberlain High School in Hillsborough County, graduating in 1984.

Career

Early

After graduating from the University of South Florida with a degree in theatre, Mandvi worked as a performer at Disney-MGM Studios at Walt Disney World Resort, and Universal Studios Florida. He later moved to New York City, where he began appearing in off-Broadway productions. During this time, he was active in the band Cowboys and Indian. He won an Obie Award for his one-man show Sakina's Restaurant.

On Broadway, Mandvi appeared as Ali Hakim in the 2002 production of Oklahoma! directed by Trevor Nunn.

Mandvi played Melchior in On the Razzle by Tom Stoppard at the Williamstown Theatre Festival and appeared in the docudrama Guantanamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom at the Culture Project. In 2012, Mandvi starred in Disgraced at Lincoln Center's Claire Tow Theater. He played the lead role of Amir, a Pakistani- American lawyer struggling with his identity and Islam in the drama by Ayad Akhtar. The play won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Mandvi was nominated for a Lucille Lortel Award for his performance.

Television

Mandvi made his television debut as a doorman at the Miami Biltmore Hotel in the episode "Line of Fire" of the series Miami Vice. He has appeared in television shows including ER, The Sopranos, Sex and the City, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Oz, Ed, The Bedford Diaries, Jericho, Sleeper Cell and various editions of Law & Order, including Criminal Intent, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Trial by Jury.

In 2006, Mandvi auditioned for The Daily Show. He was hired immediately and appeared on the show the same day. Mandvi became a regular correspondent in 2007. He often appears in segments satirizing and commenting on Islamic, Middle-Eastern, and South-Asian-related issues.

In 2013, Mandvi was cast in a recurring role on the FOX romantic comedy, Us & Them.

In October 2013, during a segment on The Daily Show, Mandvi interviewed Don Yelton of the North Carolina Republican Party office. Comments Yelton made then resulted in his resigning after the interview was aired.

Beginning in June 2015, Mandvi portrayed Rafiq Massoud in the HBO comedy series The Brink. In April 2015, Mandvi appeared on Person of Interest as Sulaiman Khan, the CEO of a software security firm. He was the lead actor, co-writer and producer of the web series Halal in the Family, which premiered on Funny or Die in 2015.

In 2016, Mandvi joined the climate change documentary show Years of Living Dangerously as one of its celebrity correspondents.

Beginning in 2017, Mandvi appeared in three episodes of the Netflix series A Series of Unfortunate Events as Montgomery "Uncle Monty" Montgomery, a herpetologist and distant relative of the Baudelaire children.

In 2019, Mandvi was cast in the Robert and Michelle King supernatural drama series Evil on CBS as Ben Shakir, a carpenter who works as a technical expert, equipment handler and debunker of supernatural phenomena.

Film

Mandvi played minor roles in the films The Siege and Die Hard with a Vengeance as well as the title role in Merchant Ivory Productions' film The Mystic Masseur. He had a major supporting role in the independent film American Chai, playing the lead character's roommate, "Engineering Sam." He played the doctor who diagnosed Paul Vitti's (Robert De Niro) panic attacks in Analyze This, and had a role as Mr. Aziz of "Joe's Pizza" in Spider-Man 2. He was also in commercials by Domino's Pizza and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). He played the tone deaf doorman Khan in Music and Lyrics.

Mandvi played a dentist alongside Ricky Gervais in the 2008 romantic comedy Ghost Town, as well as office employee Bob Spaulding in The Proposal, starring Sandra Bullock. Today's Special, which Mandvi co-wrote with Jonathan Bines, premiered at the London Film Festival in October 2009 and New York's Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council Film Festival on 11 November 2009. He appeared in It's Kind of a Funny Story, a coming-of-age film written and directed by Anna Boden with Ryan Fleck, adapted from the 2006 novel by Ned Vizzini. He also co-starred as a Guantanamo captive in the film The Response, a script based on the transcripts of Combatant Status Review Tribunals convened in Guantanamo in 2004. | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121004151053/http://www.mlive.com/us-politics/index.ssf/2009/05/new_role_for_daily_show_report.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=4 October 2012

Personal life

On 27 August 2017, Mandvi married his girlfriend of three years, Shaifali Puri, an author and humanitarian, at The Fox Theatre in Atlanta, GA. They have one son, born in 2020.

Mandvi has been diagnosed with chronic tinnitus.

In June 2019, he was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters Degree by the Macaulay Honors College after delivering the commencement speech that year.

Charity work and advocacy

Mandvi is involved with disaster-relief organizations such as the charity initiative Relief 4 Pakistan, which assists in flood relief in Pakistan. In 2010, he hosted the "Stand Up for Religious Freedom" comedy event to raise money for the organization. He is also a supporter of the Endometriosis Foundation of America.

Filmography

Actor

Film

Television

Writer

Stage

Actor

Writer

Radio drama/podcast

Actor

Published works

• The book has been adapted for the American-Indian-Bangladeshi film No Land's Man directed by Mostofa Sarwar Farooki.

References

References

1. (12 March 2007). "COMEDY CENTRAL'S 'THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART' TAPS AASIF MANDVI TO JOIN THE 'DAILY SHOW' NEWS TEAM AS A CORRESPONDENT". [[Comedy Central]].
2. Kilachand, Tara. (31 May 2008). "In the US, they say Indians are always laughing". [[Livemint]].
3. "'Interview with The Last Airbender's Aasif Mandvi: Part II'".
4. Deggans, Eric. (1 June 2008). "For Aasif Mandvi, cultural irreverence on 'The Daily Show'". [[St. Petersburg Times]].
5. "NPR Media Player". npr.org.
6. Sarfraz Manzoor. (7 June 2009). "'I get to sit on the fence between cultures': Sarfraz Manzoor talks to Aasif Mandvi, the Daily Show's 'fake news' correspondent". [[The Guardian]].
7. (31 May 2008). "For Aasif Mandvi, cultural irreverence on 'The Daily Show'". [[Tampa Bay Times]].
8. (1984). "Chamberlain High School Totem Yearbook".
9. (7 December 2011). "Asif Mandvi – Biography".
10. (2008). "25 NEW FACES OF INDEPENDENT FILM".
11. Horwitz, Simi. (29 March 2002). "Aasif Mandvi: Giving Broadway a Persian Hello".
12. (16 April 2013). "Ayad Akhtar's 'Disgraced,' play about a dinner party gone awry, wins Pulitzer Prize for drama". Washington Post.
13. "2013 Nominees - The Lucille Lortel Awards".
14. Andreeva, Nellie. "Aasif Mandvi & Michael Ian Black Join New Fox Series 'Us & Them'".
15. (26 October 2013). "GOP's Don Yelton Resigns After 'Lazy Blacks' Remark on 'Daily Show'". Wall Street Journal.
16. "Critically Acclaimed Climate Change Series "Years of Living Dangerously" Comes to Nat Geo".
17. (18 March 2016). "Aasif Mandvi Cast In Netflix's 'A Series Of Unfortunate Events' & USA's 'Mr. Robot'". Deadline Hollywood.
18. (26 September 2019). "Evil Is Smart, Scary, and Philosophical". Vox Media, Inc..
19. (30 January 2020). "'The Show Has Gone In Such Unexpected Places': Aasif Mandvi On CBS's 'Evil'". CBS Broadcasting Inc..
20. Priyanka Boghani. (12 November 2009). "New York City's Indian Film Festival: MIAAC". Huffington Post.
21. Sciretta, Peter. (30 November 2009). "Ryan Fleck's It's Kind of a Funny Story Begins Production".
22. "The Daily Show's Aasif Mandvi's Multicultural Wedding in Atlanta".
23. "The Daily Show's Aasif Mandvi Is Married".
24. "Evil Star Aasif Mandvi and Wife Shaifali Puri Welcome Son".
25. "Getting out of my own head".
26. "Class Of 2019 Commencement Ceremonies Feature Hillary Clinton, Rep. John Lewis, N.Y. Attorney General Letitia James And Chancellor Félix Matos Rodríguez as Keynote Speakers".
27. Fuerstenberg, Brittany. "Aasif Mandvi: Comic Relief for Pakistan". MSNBC.
28. "Endometriosis Foundation of America: Celebrity Supporters".
29. (2018-01-31). "Blossom Ball 2011".
30. (2 September 2011). "Comedian Aasif Mandvi attends the Endometriosis Foundation of...".
31. Falkner, Scott. (22 December 2014). "Lennon or McCartney? New Documentary Asks 550 Celebrities Their Preference — See Their Answers". [[Inquisitr]].
32. "Aasif Mandvi Will Write, Co-Produce and Co-Star in HBO Series "The Brink"". Playbill.
33. Nellie Andreeva. (23 November 2013). "Aasif Mandvi Joins HBO Pilot 'The Brink'; Katherine LaNasa In USA's Sean Jablonski - Deadline". Deadline.
34. (19 March 2025). "What's filming in Toronto and which celebrities you may just bump into".
35. (12 June 2020). "AR Rahman to co-produce Nawazuddin Siddiqui's film, No Land's Man". Mid-Day Infomedia, Jagran Prakashan Limited.
36. (5 April 2019). "Nawazuddin to star in film version of novel 'No Land's Man'". Inshorts.