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Biography From Omid Djalili's Website
Omid Djalili is an award-winning British-Iranian actor/comedian. Not only acclaimed as one of Britain's funniest stand up comedians, he has also featured in films including ‘The Mummy’, ‘Gladiator’, ‘Spy Game’, ‘Modigliani’, 'Sky Captain & The World of Tomorrow', 'Casanova', and will soon be seen in 'The Allottment' and 'Pirates of the Caribbean III'. On TV he did two seasons of 'Small Potatoes' on Channel 4. In the States he signed a talent holding deal with NBC in 2002 and co-starred with Whoopi Goldberg in her sitcom ‘Whoopi’ which ran from 2003-04. Most recently Omid has been commissioned to do his own series for BBC1, ‘The Omid Djalili Show’.
After great success at the Edinburgh Festivals of 1993 and 1994 with a one-man theatre piece, Omid became a festival favourite with a string of sell-out comedy shows. It started in 1995 with ‘Short Fat Kebab Shop Owner’s Son’, then in 1996 in ‘Arab & The Jew’. In 1997 it was ‘Omid Djalili Is Ethnic’, his least favourite year spawing the legendary lines from his manager Nigel "There's no business like no business". In 1999 he went back to Edinburgh and had another hit show, "The Iranian Ceilidh" with Kamal Mazlumi. ‘Warm to my Winning Smile’ then followed in 2000, and in 2002 ‘Behind Enemy Lines’. All three of these shows became Edinburgh’s hottest ticket. ‘Behind Enemy Lines’ received an astonishing six 5-star reviews. In 2005 Omid returned to the festival with his most successful show to date, ‘No Agenda’, with record breaking sales on the fringe totalling 16,500; this show then transferred to a total sell-out nationwide 40 date tour, including 2 shows at the London Palladium in 2006. He is one of the funniest, freshest and most original comedians in Britain today.
His international appeal is vast, having performed in recent years in Australia, Austria, the USA, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Holland,
Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Slovakia and most recently he performed in Qatar for the Emir where he shared a stage with Bill Clinton.
2006 saw Omid playing major parts in ‘Alien Autopsy’ with Ant & Dec and in ‘Over The Hedge’ alongside Bruce Willis, William Shatner and Wonder Sykes playing ‘Tiger’, and last year Omid was in a film for the BBC, ‘My Family & Other Animals’, starring alongside Imelda Staunton.
In 2005 he was invited to perform at the televised Tsunami Benefit alongside comedy luminaries Jonathan Ross, Lee Evans, Johnny Vegas, Dawn French and Alistair McGowan to name but a few. He also performed a half hour special on ‘Jack Dee Live At The Apollo’ for BBC One at the end of 2004, which was repeated in 2005. In June 2004 he recorded an HBO special in New York, the first British comic to do one since Eddie Izzard.
Biography from Wikipedia
Omid Djalili (born 30 September 1965)[1] is an English stand-up comedian and actor.
Personal life
Djalili was born in Chelsea, London to Iranian Bahá'í parents and is a Bahá'í himself.[2][3] He attended Holland Park School and then the University
of Ulster in Coleraine, Northern Ireland, studying English and Theatre studies.[4]
Comedy career
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" in 1996.
He has performed in numerous countries, including Australia, Ireland, Denmark, Canada, Germany and the United States, where he had his own HBO Special and did 22 episodes of the NBC sitcom Whoopi with Whoopi Goldberg.
He did his part for Comic Relief after the 2005 Indian Ocean earthquake and also in 2005 he appeared on the British TV show Top Gear as a celebrity driver. The same year he broke Edinburgh Festival box office records with over 16,500 ticket sales.
In 2006, Sky Television picked him to be the face of their Saturday night movie 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.
On 18 March 2007, he was voted by the British public as the 60th best stand-up comedian in a Channel 4 programme "The 100 Greatest Stand-Ups".
On 26 October 2007, he guest-presented the BBC political quiz show Have I Got News for You.[citation needed] The Omid Djalili Show started on BBC1 on
17 November 2007. The series is a mix of sketches and stand-up material. A second series was recorded in late 2008 and began broadcast on BBC1 on 20
April 2009. He performed on We Are Most Amused on ITV to mark Prince Charles's 60th birthday in 2008.[citation needed]
In 2010, Djalili took part in Channel 4's Comedy Gala, a benefit show held in aid of Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital, filmed live at the O2 Arena in London on 30 March.
Live tours
Omid Djalili: No Agenda (2007)
Omid Djalili Live (2008)
Acting career
Djalili has appeared in a number of films, most notably Gladiator, The Mummy, Mean Machine, Alien Autopsy, Spy Game, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Grow Your Own, Notting Hill and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.
He had 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". He is probably best-known to American audiences as Nasim from the short-lived U.S. sitcom Whoopi, starring Whoopi Goldberg, and picked up an international film award for Best Supporting Actor in Casanova, starring alongside the late Heath Ledger.
On 12 February 2009, Cameron Macintosh (producer) announced that Djalili will 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 was contracted until 18 July 2009.[5]
In 2009, Omid 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 is scheduled to star in the David Baddiel scripted movie The Infidel.
Filmography
Cinema
The Mummy (1999)
Notting Hill (1999)
Mad Cows (1999)
The World Is Not Enough (1999)
Gladiator (2000)
Spy Game (2001)
Mean Machine (2001)
Anita and Me (2002)
Cross My Heart (2003)
Deadlines (2004)
The Calcium Kid (2004)
Around the World in 80 Days (2004)
Modigliani (2004)
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004)
Casanova (2005)
Alien Autopsy (2006)
Over the Hedge (2006)
Grow Your Own (2007)
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007)
The Love Guru (2008)
Dead Man Running (2009)
Television
The Bill (1998)
Barking (1998)
The Lake of Darkness (1999)
Cleopatra (1999)
Coming Soon (1999)
Small Potatoes (1999)
Black Books (2000)
Jason and the Argonauts (2000)
Lenny Henry in Pieces (2000)
Relic Hunter (2002)
Dinotopia: The Series (2002)
Between Iraq and a Hard Place (2003)
Whoopi (2003)
Live at the Apollo (2004)
Age of Awakening. Narrator (2005)
Chopra Town (2005)
One Night Stand (HBO) (2005)
My Family and Other Animals (2005)
Rob Brydon's Annually Retentive (2006)
Jack Dee's Lead Balloon (2006)
Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law (2006)
TV Heaven, Telly Hell (2007)
Have I Got News For You (2007)
The Omid Djalili Show (2007)
Premier League All Stars (2007)
Never Mind The Buzzcocks (2008)
The Omid Djalili Show - Series 2 (2009)
Video games
Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony as Yusuf Amir. [1] (2009)
Awards
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.
See also
Iranian stand-up comedy
References
1. IMDb profile
2. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/omid-djalili-everybodys-fool-466169.html
3. In The Arena With Omid Djalili By Darius Kadivar, Payvand's Iran News, 3/12/07
4. TV Heaven, Telly Hell - Omid Djalili
5. "Omid Djalili pockets Fagin role in Oliver!", The Guardian article, 11 February 2009
Omid Djalili's website - www.omidnoagenda.com
Omid Djalili on Twitter - twitter.com/omid9
Omid Djalili on MySpace - www.myspace.com/omiddjalili
Omid Djalili Pictures
Omid Djalili Quotes
DVD
Omid Djalili: No Agenda B0017T0Z0S,B002YKU7O8
The Omid Djalili Show B002YKU7O8