Aasif Mandvi

Aasif Hakim Mandviwala, known professionally as Aasif Mandvi (/ˈɑːsɪf ˈmɑːndvi/, AH-sif MAHND-vee), is a British actor. He was a correspondent on The Daily Show from 2006 to 2017.^[1] Mandvi's other television work includes the HBO comedy series The Brink and the CBS/Paramount+ psychological drama Evil. His film roles include playing Mr. Aziz in Spider-Man 2 and Commander Zhao in The Last Airbender. His stage work includes appearing on Broadway as Ali Hakim in Oklahoma! and in productions of Disgraced (2012), which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2013.

Aasif Mandvi
Mandvi in 2016
Born	Aasif Hakim Mandviwala Mumbai, India
Education	University of South Florida
Occupations	Actor comedian writer
Years active	1988–present
Spouse	Shaifali Puri ​ (m. 2017)​
Children	1
Website	aasifmandvi.com

Early life

Mandvi was born in Bombay (now Mumbai), Maharashtra, India,^[2] to a Dawoodi Bohra^[3] Muslim family.^[4]

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,^[5] later ran a corner shop. His mother, Fatima, was a nurse.^[6][7] Mandvi attended the independent Woodhouse Grove School, and he identifies as a "working-class kid from Bradford".^[6]

In the early 80s, his father grew frustrated with Margaret Thatcher's administration and moved his family to Tampa, Florida, United States when Mandvi was 16.^[6] He attended Chamberlain High School, graduating in 1984.^[8]

Career

Early

After graduating from the University of South Florida with a degree in theatre,^[9] Mandvi worked as a performer at Disney-MGM Studios at Walt Disney World Resort,^[4] 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.^[10]

On Broadway, Mandvi appeared as Ali Hakim in the 2002 production of Oklahoma! directed by Trevor Nunn.^[11]

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.^[12] Mandvi was nominated for a Lucille Lortel Award for his performance.^[13]

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, Oz, Ed, The Bedford Diaries, Jericho, Sleeper Cell and various editions of Law & Order, including Criminal Intent, 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.^[4] 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.^[14]

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.^[15]

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.^[16]

Beginning in 2017, Mandvi appeared in three episodes of the Netflix series A Series of Unfortunate Events as Montgomery "Uncle Monty" Montgomery,^[17] 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.^[18][19]

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 at the 2010 San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival.

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 November 11, 2009.^[20] 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.^[21] 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.^[22] In M. Night Shyamalan's The Last Airbender (released in 2010) he played a major role as Commander Zhao. Mandvi played the role of Mr. Chetty in the 2013 comedy The Internship and portrayed Ash Vasudevan in the 2014 film Million Dollar Arm.

Personal life

On August 27 2017, Mandvi married his girlfriend of three years, Shaifali Puri, an author and humanitarian, at The Fox Theatre in Atlanta, GA.^[23][24] They have one son, born March 14, 2020.^[25]

Mandvi has been diagnosed with chronic tinnitus.^[26]

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.^[27]

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.^[28] He is also a supporter of the Endometriosis Foundation of America.^[29][30][31]

Filmography

Actor

Film

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1990	No Retreat, No Surrender 3: Blood Brothers	Terrorist
1995	Die Hard with a Vengeance	Arab Cabbie
1996	Eddie	Mohammed
1998	The Siege	Khalil Saleh
1999	Hook'd Up	Indian Guy
	Analyze This	Dr. Shulman
	Gofer	Gorby
	Random Hearts	Electronics Store Salesman
	ABCD	Ashok
2001	3 A.M.	Singh
	American Chai	Engineering Sam
	Peroxide Passion	Beaumond
2002	The Mystic Masseur	Ganesh Ramsumair
	Book of Kings	Dr. Mitra	Short film
2003	Undermind	Shark/Roger
2004	Spider-Man 2	Mr. Aziz
2005	Sorry, Haters	Hassan
	The War Within	Abdul
2006	Freedomland	Dr. Anil Chatterjee
2007	Music and Lyrics	Khan
2008	Eavesdrop	Don
	Pretty Bird	Ted the Banker
	The Understudy	Sarfras
	Ghost Town	Dr. Prashar
2009	The Proposal	Bob Spaulding
	Today's Special	Samir	Also screenwriter
2010	It's Kind of a Funny Story	Dr. Mahmoud
	The Last Airbender	Commander Zhao
2011	Margin Call	Ramesh Shah
	Dark Horse	Mahmoud
2012	Premium Rush	Raj
	The Dictator	Doctor
	Ruby Sparks	Cyrus Modi
2013	Movie 43	Robert	Segment "iBabe"
	The Internship	Mr. Roger Chetty
	Gods Behaving Badly	Maxwell
2014	Million Dollar Arm	Ash Vasudevan
	Lennon or McCartney	Himself	Short documentary film; interview clip[32]
2016	Mother's Day	Russell
	Undecided: The Movie	Roger Ayeels
2019	Drunk Parents	Nigel
	Human Capital	Godeep
2022	Crush	Coach Murray
	Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank	Ichiro (voice)
2023	The Magician's Elephant	The King (voice)

Television

Year	Show	Role	Notes
1988	Miami Vice	Doorman	Episode: "Line of Fire"
1995	New York Undercover	Omar	Episode: "The Smoking Section"
	The Cosby Mysteries	Cabbie	Episode: "Big Brother Is Watching"
1995–1998	Law & Order	Peanut Vendor / Gulab Singh / Technician / Khan	4 episodes
1996	Jake's Women	Driver	Television film
	Nash Bridges	Aziz Kadim	Episode: "Trackdown"
1998	Dellaventura	Aasif	Episode: "The Human Factor"
2000	Welcome to New York	Doorman	Episode: "Jim Gets an Apartment"
	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Professor Husseini	Episode: "Honor"
	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	Dr. Leever	Episode: "Anonymous"
2001	Sex and the City	Dmitri	Episode: "My Motherboard, My Self"
2002	Oz	Dr. Faraj	2 episodes
2003	Ed	Buyer	Episode: "Goodbye Stuckeyville"
2004	Law & Order: Criminal Intent	Sateesh	Episode: "Inert Dwarf"
	Tanner on Tanner	Salim Barik	4 episodes
2006	Law & Order: Trial by Jury	Judge Samir Patel	Episode: "Bang & Blame, Baby Boom"
	The Sopranos	Dr. Abu Bilal	Episode: "Kaisha"
	Sleeper Cell	Khalid	Episode: "Al-Baqara"
2006–2007	ER	Manish	3 episodes
2006–2008	Jericho	Dr. Kenchy Dhuwalia	8 episodes
2006–2015	The Daily Show	Himself	188 episodes
2010	King of the Hill	Mike Patel (voice)	Episode: "When Joseph Met Lori, and Made Out with Her in the Janitor's Closet"
2011	Curb Your Enthusiasm	Man in Elevator	Episode: "Larry vs. Michael J. Fox"
2014	Us & Them	Dave Coaches	Episode: "Crunch & Brunch"
2015	Madam Secretary	Prince Yousif Obaid	Episode: "Chains of Command"
	Person of Interest	Suleiman Khan	Episode: "Search and Destroy"
	The Brink	Rafiq Massoud	10 episodes; also producer and writer[33][34]
	Halal in the Family	Aasif Qu'osby	Web series
	Jake and the Never Land Pirates	Pirate Pharaoh (voice)	3 episodes
2016–2019	Elena of Avalor	King Raja (voice)	2 episodes
2016	Another Period	Parshwall	Episode: "The Prince and the Pauper"
2017	Younger	Jay Malick	4 episodes
	Shut Eye	Pazhani "Paz" Kapoor	6 episodes
	National Geographic Explorer	Host	Season 10 Episode 2
	The Problem with Apu	Himself	Documentary film
2017–2018	A Series of Unfortunate Events	Dr. Montgomery Montgomery (Uncle Monty)	3 episodes
2018	Explained	Narrator (voice)	Episode: "Cricket, explained"
2018–2020	Blue Bloods	Samar "Sam" Chatwal	Recurring, season 9
2019–2024	Evil	Ben Shakir	Main cast
2019	This Way Up	Vish	Main cast
	Ghostwriter	Bagheera (voice)	2 episodes
	Room 104	Eugene Hill	Episode: "The Specimen Collector"
2020	The Boss Baby: Back in Business	OCB Corporate Consultant (voice)	Season 4: Episodes 6 & 10 - 12
2020–2022	Mira, Royal Detective	Sahil (voice)	18 episodes
2021	Archer	Cornelius Varma (voice)	Episode: "London Time"
2022	Would I Lie to You? (USA)	Host

Writer

Year	Film	Notes
2009	Today's Special

Stage

Actor

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1993	Suburbia	Norman Chaudry
1995	Death Defying Acts	Delivery Boy	In one-act "Hotline"
1997	Crosscurrents	Paul
1998	Sakina's Restaurant		One man play
2002	Oklahoma!	Ali Hakim	Revival
2012	Disgraced	Amir Kapoor	Lincoln Center/LCT3

Writer

Year	Title	Notes
1998	Sakina's Restaurant

Radio drama/podcast

Actor

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2021	Marvel's Wastelanders: Star-Lord	Rattlesnake Pete

Published works

• Mandvi, Aasif (2014). No Land's Man. Chronicle Books. ISBN 978-1452107912. The book has been adapted for the American-Indian-Bangladeshi film No Land's Man directed by Mostofa Sarwar Farooki.^[35][36]

References

1. "COMEDY CENTRAL'S 'THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART' TAPS AASIF MANDVI TO JOIN THE 'DAILY SHOW' NEWS TEAM AS A CORRESPONDENT" (Press release). Comedy Central. March 12, 2007. Archived from the original on January 2, 2008. Retrieved November 7, 2008.
2. Kilachand, Tara (May 31, 2008). "In the US, they say Indians are always laughing". Livemint. Archived from the original on July 2, 2008. Retrieved November 7, 2008.
3. "'Interview with The Last Airbender's Aasif Mandvi: Part II'". Archived from the original on April 13, 2014. Retrieved April 10, 2014.
4. Deggans, Eric (June 1, 2008). "For Aasif Mandvi, cultural irreverence on 'The Daily Show'". St. Petersburg Times. Archived from the original on December 14, 2008. Retrieved November 7, 2008.
5. "NPR Media Player". npr.org. Archived from the original on May 5, 2015. Retrieved September 2, 2015.
6. Sarfraz Manzoor (June 7, 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. Archived from the original on January 29, 2017. Retrieved December 13, 2016.
7. Deggans, Eric (May 31, 2008). "For Aasif Mandvi, cultural irreverence on 'The Daily Show'". Tampa Bay Times. Archived from the original on September 3, 2014. Retrieved June 28, 2014.
8. Chamberlain High School Totem Yearbook. Tampa, Florida. 1984. p. 178.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
9. "Asif Mandvi – Biography". IMDb. December 7, 2011. Archived from the original on January 14, 2017. Retrieved June 30, 2018.
10. "25 NEW FACES OF INDEPENDENT FILM". Filmmaker Magazine. 2008. Archived from the original on March 5, 2010. Retrieved November 7, 2008.
11. Horwitz, Simi (March 29, 2002). "Aasif Mandvi: Giving Broadway a Persian Hello". Backstage. Archived from the original on January 7, 2009. Retrieved November 7, 2008.
12. "Ayad Akhtar's 'Disgraced,' play about a dinner party gone awry, wins Pulitzer Prize for drama". Washington Post. Associated Press. April 16, 2013. Archived from the original on July 13, 2019.
13. "2013 Nominees - The Lucille Lortel Awards". The Lucille Lortel Awards. Archived from the original on February 7, 2020. Retrieved February 7, 2020.
14. Andreeva, Nellie. "Aasif Mandvi & Michael Ian Black Join New Fox Series 'Us & Them'". Deadline. Archived from the original on August 26, 2013. Retrieved August 28, 2013.
15. Farley, Christopher John (October 26, 2013). "GOP's Don Yelton Resigns After 'Lazy Blacks' Remark on 'Daily Show'". Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on November 11, 2020. Retrieved March 5, 2017.
16. "Critically Acclaimed Climate Change Series "Years of Living Dangerously" Comes to Nat Geo". Archived from the original on May 13, 2016. Retrieved June 17, 2016.
17. Andreeva, Nellie (March 18, 2016). "Aasif Mandvi Cast In Netflix's 'A Series Of Unfortunate Events' & USA's 'Mr. Robot'". Deadline Hollywood. Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on March 20, 2016. Retrieved February 15, 2017.
18. Chaney, Jen (September 26, 2019). "Evil Is Smart, Scary, and Philosophical". Vulture. Vox Media, Inc. Archived from the original on March 6, 2020. Retrieved February 7, 2020.
19. "'The Show Has Gone In Such Unexpected Places': Aasif Mandvi On CBS's 'Evil'". CBS Boston. CBS Broadcasting Inc. January 30, 2020. Archived from the original on February 7, 2020. Retrieved February 7, 2020.
20. Priyanka Boghani (November 12, 2009). "New York City's Indian Film Festival: MIAAC". Huffington Post. Archived from the original on April 12, 2012. Retrieved November 10, 2009.
21. Sciretta, Peter (November 30, 2009). "Ryan Fleck's It's Kind of a Funny Story Begins Production". Archived from the original on March 6, 2010. Retrieved June 12, 2010.
22. "New role for 'Daily Show' reporter". MLive. May 9, 2009. Archived from the original on October 4, 2012.
23. "The Daily Show's Aasif Mandvi's Multicultural Wedding in Atlanta". brides. Archived from the original on May 17, 2019. Retrieved May 17, 2019.
24. Jordan, Julie. "The Daily Show's Aasif Mandvi Is Married". People. Archived from the original on March 27, 2018. Retrieved March 27, 2018.
25. Boucher, Ashley. "Evil Star Aasif Mandvi and Wife Shaifali Puri Welcome Son". People. Archived from the original on April 14, 2021. Retrieved March 31, 2021.
26. "Getting out of my own head". Meditative Story. Archived from the original on February 26, 2021. Retrieved February 14, 2021.
27. "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". CUNY Newswire. Archived from the original on August 2, 2019. Retrieved June 11, 2019.
28. Fuerstenberg, Brittany. "Aasif Mandvi: Comic Relief for Pakistan". MSNBC. Archived from the original on January 19, 2024. Retrieved September 26, 2011.
29. "Endometriosis Foundation of America: Celebrity Supporters". Look to the Stars. Archived from the original on April 20, 2020. Retrieved May 16, 2019.
30. "Blossom Ball 2011". Endometriosis Foundation of America. January 31, 2018. Archived from the original on September 27, 2020. Retrieved May 16, 2019.
31. "Comedian Aasif Mandvi attends the Endometriosis Foundation of..." Getty Images. September 2, 2011. Archived from the original on June 10, 2022. Retrieved May 16, 2019.
32. Falkner, Scott (December 22, 2014). "Lennon or McCartney? New Documentary Asks 550 Celebrities Their Preference — See Their Answers". Inquisitr. Archived from the original on November 12, 2016. Retrieved November 11, 2016.
33. "Aasif Mandvi Will Write, Co-Produce and Co-Star in HBO Series "The Brink"". Playbill. Archived from the original on June 6, 2014. Retrieved September 2, 2015.
34. Nellie Andreeva (November 23, 2013). "Aasif Mandvi Joins HBO Pilot 'The Brink'; Katherine LaNasa In USA's Sean Jablonski - Deadline". Deadline. Archived from the original on June 9, 2014. Retrieved September 2, 2015.
35. The Hitlist Team (June 12, 2020). "AR Rahman to co-produce Nawazuddin Siddiqui's film, No Land's Man". Mid-Day. Mumbai: Mid-Day Infomedia, Jagran Prakashan Limited. Archived from the original on August 23, 2020. Retrieved October 29, 2020.
36. Philipose, Rahel (April 5, 2019). "Nawazuddin to star in film version of novel 'No Land's Man'". Inshorts. Archived from the original on October 29, 2020. Retrieved October 29, 2020.

External links

• Aasif Mandvi Dot Com, official website
• Aasif Mandvi on Twitter
• Aasif Mandvi at IMDb
• "A Man Called Mandvi", Nirali Magazine, February 2007
• "This is you, America. Are you ok with it?" – Interview
• One on One – Aasif Mandvi – Interview with Al Jazeera English (video, 24:53 min.)