Nazeem Hussain (born 21 April 1985) is an Australian comedian, actor, television and radio presenter. He is best known as creator and star of two television comedy shows, ''

Legally Brown ''Legally Brown'' was an Australian comedy television series screened on SBS from 2013 to 2014. It presented a take on being Muslim in Australia. The ten-part series was hosted and co-written by Nazeem Hussain and produced by Johnny Lowry. It ...

'' (2013-14) and ''

Orange Is the New Brown ''Orange is the New Brown'' is an Australian sketch comedy television series on the Seven Network. ''Orange is the New Brown'' is written by Nazeem Hussain, Joel Slack Smith, Sophie Braham, Richard Thorp, Penny Greenhalgh and Heidi Regan. It i ...

'' (2018). His

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

special ''Nazeem Hussain: Public Frenemy'' began streaming worldwide in 2019. The

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

describes Hussain's comedy as having a "trademark confrontational style - tackling topics like race relations, the War on Terror and life being brown and Muslim in Australia".

Early life

Hussain was born in 1985 in

Melbourne, Australia Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metropol ...

. His parents, both born in

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

, met in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

before relocating to Australia in the 1970s. Following their separation when Hussain was six years old, Hussain's father returned to Sri Lanka. Hussain's father died of

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

in 2021. Hussain has two sisters. Hussain studied law and science at

Deakin University Deakin University is a public university in Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1974, the university was named after Alfred Deakin, the second Prime Minister of Australia. Its main campuses are in Melbourne's Burwood suburb, Geelong Waurn Ponds, ...

and worked as a tax consultant for

PriceWaterhouseCoopers PricewaterhouseCoopers is an international professional services brand of firms, operating as partnerships under the PwC brand. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is considered one of the Big Four accounting ...

prior to entering comedy.

Political views and activities

Hussain has served as Treasurer and an Executive of the

Islamic Council of Victoria The Islamic Council of Victoria (ICV) an Australian Muslim organisation acting as the central representative body for the Muslim community and local Islamic organisations in Victoria, Australia.Osama Bin Laden Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (10 March 1957 – 2 May 2011) was a Saudi-born extremist militant who founded al-Qaeda and served as its leader from 1988 until Killing of Osama bin Laden, his death in 2011. Ideologically a Pan-Islamism ...

in 2011 and characterised the "extra-judicial" shooting of the

Al Qaeda Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military targets in various countr ...

leader as an example of the United States seeming to "always be outside that sphere of what's right", and said "with so many years of esternintervention in the Middle East, eventually you're going to create someone like Osama Bin Laden who is going to react in a way that you just can't control". He also criticised the Government's efforts to stop the people smuggling trade to Australia, and said it was a "myth" that the Howard Government had stopped people smuggling boat arrivals, because "You can't deter people smugglers." In a 2021 ABC program entitled ''The School That Tried to End Racism'', Hussain led a discussion with primary students. The program promoted

critical race theory Critical race theory (CRT) is a cross-disciplinary examination, by social and civil-rights scholars and activists, of how laws, social and political movements, and media shape, and are shaped by, social conceptions of race and ethnicity. Goa ...

. Nazeem led a discussion with primary school children to present the comedy character

Con the Fruiterer Con Dikaletus aka Con the Fruiterer is a fictional character created by Australian actor and comedian Mark Mitchell. Mitchell created the character after being served by two Greek Australian stall holders at Glenferrie Markets in 1984. The charac ...

as racist. The

describes Hussain's own comedy as being "confrontational" in dealing with race relations, and Islam. In his 2019 ''Melbourne International Comedy Festival Gala'' routine, he depicted Christians as pedophiles, Jews as controlling the media and money, and said of Catholic Cardinal

George Pell George Pell (born 8 June 1941) is an Australian cardinal of the Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . I ...

"I hope you're enjoying prison bitch". In 2022, Hussain withdrew from participating in the

Festival of Sydney Sydney Festival is a major arts festival in Australia's largest city, Sydney that runs for three weeks every January, since it was established in 1977. The festival program features in excess of 100 events from local and international artists an ...

because the Festival accepted a $20,000 donation from the Israeli Embassy.Sydney Festival: Furious backlash after event accepts controversial $20,000 contribution
news.com.au; Jan 4, 2022

References

External links

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Nazeem Hussain
on ''On Line Opinion'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Hussain, Nazeem 1986 births Living people Australian Muslims Australian people of Sri Lankan Tamil descent Australian male comedians Australian stand-up comedians Australian comedy writers Muslim male comedians Australian television talk show hosts 21st-century Australian male actors Australian radio personalities Australian social workers Comedians from Melbourne Lawyers from Melbourne Male actors from Melbourne People educated at Melbourne High School Deakin University alumni RMITV alumni I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! (Australian TV series) participants