Omid Djalili

Omid Djalili
Djalili in 2007
Born	(1965-09-30) 30 September 1965 Chelsea, London, England
Nationality	British
Occupation(s)	Actor, comedian, writer
Years active	1991–present
Spouse	Annabel Knight (m.1992)
Children	3

Omid Djalili (Persian: امید جلیلی) (born 30 September 1965) is a British actor, comedian and writer.

Early life

Djalili was born on 30 September 1965 in Chelsea, London, to Iranian Bahá'í parents. He is a member of the Bahá'í religion. He went to Holland Park School and then the University of Ulster, Northern Ireland, to study English and Theatre Studies. As a Bahá'í, he signed a letter to the leaders of Iran saying that they way they treated Bahá'í people was very bad.

Career

His first good comedy job was at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1995, with his act "Short, Fat Kebab Shop Owner's Son". His next success was in 1996 with "The Arab and the Jew". He said he was the only Iranian comedian, which was still "three more than Germany". His jokes are often about different religions and the funny differences. He has energy on stage and his good pretend voices, together with political jokes mixed with strange belly dancing.

Some countries he has performed in include Australia, Denmark, Canada, Ireland and the United States. The Observer said he was one of the top 50 funny people in British comedy. In 2005 he went on the British car television programme Top Gear as a special guest driver. The same year he also did stand up comedy for Comic Relief, a British television programme where people are funny to raise money for poor people. Also that year he had the biggest number of tickets sold for the Edinburgh Festival box office, which was 16,500 sales.

On 17 November 2007, his own television programme started on BBC One, which is a mix of him talking and showing short funny films. A second series started on 20 April 2009.

Other websites

• Omid Djalili on IMDb