Abdullah Afzal ( ur, عبداللہ افضل; born 1989) is a British actor and stand-up comedian.

Early life

Afzal is of

British-Pakistani British Pakistanis ( ur, (Bratānia men maqīm pākstānī); also known as Pakistani British people or Pakistani Britons) are citizens or residents of the United Kingdom whose ancestral roots lie in Pakistan. This includes people born in ...

descent from

Cheetham Hill Cheetham is an inner-city area and electoral ward of Manchester, England, which in 2011 had a population of 22,562. It lies on the west bank of the River Irk, north of Manchester city centre, close to the boundary with Salford, bounded by Brou ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, England. He has three older brothers, two older sisters and a younger half-brother. He attended Abraham Moss High School in North Manchester. Afzal trained for three years to be a hafiz.

Career

In 2007, Afzal had his first acting role as a young student in a short film called ''Raamis'' (originally called ''Extraordinary Rendition''). Between 2008 and 2011, he starred as Asif in two seasons of

BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes targeting 16 to 34-year-olds, covering all genres including animation, comedy, curre ...

sitcom ''

Lunch Monkeys ''Lunch Monkeys'' is a British situation comedy, first shown on BBC Three in 2008. Overview ''Lunch Monkeys'' by David Isaac is a BBC Three comedy series, produced by Channel X North, set in the administration department of fictional personal inj ...

''. Since 2012, he has portrayed the character of Amjad Malik in

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...

's ''

Citizen Khan ''Citizen Khan'' is a British sitcom produced by the BBC and created by Adil Ray. Five series have been shown so far. It is set in Sparkhill, South Birmingham, described by its lead character, a British Pakistani man Mr Khan (Ray), as "the capita ...

''. In February 2014, Afzal presented the Christmas comedy specials on

BBC Asian Network BBC Asian Network is a British Asian radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station's target audience is people "with an interest in British Asian lifestyles", especially British Asians between the ages of 18 and 34. The station has ...

. In July 2015, he performed stand-up at the Eid Special Comedy Night at

The Comedy Store The Comedy Store is an American comedy club opened in April 1972. It is located in West Hollywood, California, at 8433 Sunset Boulevard on the Sunset Strip. An associated club is located in La Jolla, San Diego, California. History The Comedy ...

in London. In July 2014, Afzal played two roles in

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

's ''By a Young Officer: Churchill on the North West Frontier''. In 2017, he appeared as Jahid in the romantic comedy film ''

Finding Fatimah ''Finding Fatimah'' is a British romantic comedy written and directed by Oz Arshad. The film is about a man who struggles to find love in the British Asian community due to the stigma of his divorce several years prior. The majority of ''Findi ...

''. In 2021, Afzal wrote, starred, and directed Cinder’aliyah, Britain’s first Muslim pantomime. The pantomime is due to tour again in 2022.

Personal life

He works at

Manchester Airport Manchester Airport is an international airport in Ringway, Manchester, England, south-west of Manchester city centre. In 2019, it was the third busiest airport in the United Kingdom in terms of passenger numbers and the busiest of those n ...

to supplement his acting career, and lives in Manchester with his wife Uzma, who he married in 2015. Afzal’s family originate from

Rawalpindi district Rawalpindi District ( Punjabi and ur, ) is a district located in the northernmost part of the Punjab province of Pakistan. Parts of the district form part of the Islamabad Rawalpindi metropolitan area. Rawalpindi city is the district capi ...

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...

Filmography

Film

Television

Radio

References

External links

* * 1989 births Living people English Muslims English people of Pakistani descent English male comedians English stand-up comedians English comedy writers Muslim male comedians English male television actors English male actors of South Asian descent 21st-century English comedians 21st-century English male actors Comedians from Manchester Male actors from Manchester People from Cheetham Hill {{UK-comedian-stub