Biography of Aasif Mandvi
Aasif Mandviwala was born on March 5, 1966 in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, known professionally as Aasif Mandvi, is an Indian-born, British-raised, American actor and comedian. He began appearing as an occasional contributing correspondent on The Daily Show on August 9, 2006. On March 12, 2007, he was promoted to a regular correspondent.
Mandvi was born to a Muslim family. His family moved to Bradford, England, when he was one year old. He emigrated with his family to Tampa, Florida, USA, when he was 16. After studying at the University of South Florida, 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 also was active in the band Cowboys and Indian. He won an Obie Award for his critically acclaimed one-man show Sakina’s Restaurant.
On Broadway, Mandvi appeared as Ali Hakim in the 2002 revival of Oklahoma! directed by Trevor Nunn. He also appeared in the play Homebody/Kabul by Tony Kushner. He recently portrayed the German character 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.
In 2006, Mandvi auditioned for The Daily Show. He was hired immediately and appeared on the show the same day. Mandvi became a regular correspondent in 2007. He often appears in segments satirizing and commenting on Islam and India-related issues with such titles as “Senior Asian Correspondent” and “Senior Middle East Correspondent”.
He has been in numerous television shows; 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. Mandvi was the reader for the books on audio editions of Salman Rushdie’sShalimar the Clown (2005) and V. S. Naipaul’s Magic Seeds (2004).
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 also 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 memorable role as Mr. Aziz of “Joe’s Pizza” in Spider-Man 2. He was also in a Domino’s Pizza commercial. He played the tone deaf doorman Khan in Music and Lyrics. Mandvi also played Bob Spaulding in the movie The Proposal.
Mandvi played a dentist alongside Ricky Gervais in the romantic comedy Ghost Town, as well as an office employee 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. 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.
In 2008, Mandvi began production on the film Today’s Special which he co wrote with The Daily Show ex-writer Jonathan Bines. 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. In M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender (released in 2010) he played a major role as Admiral Zhao.
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