Omid Djalili

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Djalili in The Mummy.

Omid Djalili (pronounced "Omeed Jaleelee") (born September 30, 1965) is a British stand-up comedian, born to Iranian parents. He attended the University of Ulster in Coleraine, studying English and Theatre studies and is an active member of the Bahá'í Faith. He prides himself as being the only Iranian comedian, which, he says, is "three more than Germany".

Overview

Starting his stand-up comedy career with amazing success at the Edinburgh Festival in 1995, he followed up his comedic performances with even more successful, sell-out shows, starting with "Short, Fat Kebab Shop Owner's Son" in 1995, following up with "The Arab and the Jew" in 1996, "Omid Djalili is Ethnic" in 1997, "Warm to My Winning Smile" in 2000, "Behind Enemy Lines" in 2002, and his most-recent "No Agenda" which started in October of 2005.

His stand-up routines and jokes focus primarily on multiculturalism and ethnic particularities. His hyperactive and energetic manner of imitating accents, doing bellydances, and singing songs earned him a significant fanbase all over the globe.

He has performed in over 12 countries worldwide, including Australia, Ireland, Denmark, Canada, Germany, and the United States.

Omid Djalili has also appeared in a number of motion pictures, most notably Gladiator, The Mummy, and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. He is probably best-known to American audiences as Nasim from the US sitcom Whoopi, starring alongside actress Whoopi Goldberg.

In 2003, he was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy.

In 2006 Sky Television picked him to be the face of their Saturday night movie Premieres.

He did his part for Comic Aid, after the terrible Tsunami disaster. The crowd really warmed to him, and he gave a splendid performance. 'I'm going to lighten things up, now. I'm going to talk about Al Quaeda...'

Filmography

Cinema:

The Mummy (1999)
Notting Hill (1999) (Uncredited)
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)
Modigliani (2004)
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004)
Casanova (2005)
Alien Autopsy (2006)
Over the Hedge (2006)

Television:

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)
Dinotopia: The Series (2002)
Between Iraq and a Hard Place (2003)
Whoopi (2003)
Chopra Town (2005)
My Family and Other Animals (2005)

Awards

Omid Djalili has won a vast number of awards for his comedy. These include the Emma Award, Time Out Award, and LWT Comedy Award for Best Stand-up Comedian, as well as the One World Media Award for his Channel 4 documentary, Bloody Foreigners.

Subsequently, he has also been nominated for another equally varied array of 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.

[link]== External links ==

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