Aasif Hakim Mandviwala (born March 5, 1966), known professionally as Aasif Mandvi, is a British-American actor, comedian and author.
2002
On Broadway, Mandvi appeared as Ali Hakim in the 2002 production of Oklahoma! directed by Trevor Nunn.
He also appeared in the play Homebody/Kabul by Tony Kushner.
He portrayed Fritz Haber in the off-Broadway play Einstein's Gift.
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.
2005
He was the book reader for audio editions of Salman Rushdie's Shalimar the Clown (2005) and V. S. Naipaul's Magic Seeds (2004).
2006
He was a correspondent on The Daily Show from 2006 to 2017.
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.
In 2006, Mandvi auditioned for The Daily Show.
He was hired immediately and appeared on the show the same day.
2007
Mandvi became a regular correspondent in 2007.
He often appears in segments satirizing and commenting on Islamic, Middle-Eastern, and South-Asian-related issues with such titles as "Senior Asian Correspondent," "Senior Middle East Correspondent," "Senior Foreign Looking Correspondent," and "Senior Muslim Correspondent."
2011
In 2011 he appeared in Taco Bell commercials.
2012
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.
Mandvi was born in Bombay (now Mumbai), Maharashtra, India, to a Dawoodi Bohra Muslim family.
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, 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 Tampa, Florida, United States when Mandvi was 16.
He attended Chamberlain High School.
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.
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.
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.
2013
The play won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Mandvi was nominated for a Lucille Lortel Award for his performance.
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 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 he made then resulted in his resigning after the interview was aired.
2015
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.
2016
In 2016, Mandvi joined the climate change documentary show Years of Living Dangerously as one of its celebrity correspondents.
2017
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.
