Music
A singer, musician and live performer Afdlin, together with his band Acid Iz, presents a flavour of R&B, acid jazz and funk. His debut album FUUYO! was released in late 2003. In 1992, he performed for an audience of 50,000 in the 'Ikhlas Concert' alongside Zainal Abidin and Sheila Majid among others. He has performed in one of the most respected jazz clubs in Europe such as Ronnie Scott's, as an opening act for Sheila Majid for her 1996 UK Tour. He also made a guest appearance with David Foster's protege Jordan Hill for her 1997 Malaysian tour singing 'Till the end of time'.
He won the Best Ethnic Pop song category at the Anugerah Juara Lagu ke-19 in 2005 for a song he wrote for Dayang Nurfaizah called 'Erti Hidup'.
Film
As a film actor, his local debut was as part of the supporting cast for Pesona Pictures' Mimpi Moon, which was followed by his role as the "Interpreter" in the Hollywood movie "Anna and the King". He played his first romantic lead in Serangkai Filem's Soal Hati, and was honoured with a Best Actor award for his portrayal of "Daniel" at the Anugerah Skrin Panca Delima Awards, 2000. He has since filmed "Soalnya Siapa?", a continuation of the story.
Afdlin has been involved in various direct-to-VCD projects, the latest being "Kelibat", a profit-sharing venture between the actors involved and Vision Works. For this project, Afdlin wrote, directed and acted simultaneously and the work was released in April 2004.
His screen debut as a writer and director, as well as lead actor, manifested in Buli a Grand Brilliance produced film about a technical savant and social misfit in a corporate and highly socialised world. He was awarded Most Promising New Director, Best Screenplay and Best Original Story in the 2005 Malaysian Film Festival for this work. In the same year he was awarded for Best Actor, Best Director and Best Screenplay at the Anugerah Skrin organized by TV3. An eventual sequel, "Buli Balik", was awarded Best Director, Best Original Story and Best Film Awards at the 2006 Malaysian Film Festival and also the Best Director and Best Screenplay Awards at the Anugerah Skrin (TV3) awards of the same year.
Other movies since then include Gila-Gila Pengantin Remaja, Pontianak, Biar Betul and Baik Punya Cilok (which received the Film Goer's Choice Award at the Anugerah Skrin Era Awards of 2006).
In 2007 he produced, co-directed and co-wrote Sumolah under his company Vision Works, which was invited to show at the Fukuoka International Film Festival. He also produced, directed and wrote "Los Dan Faun" under the same company. He played main and supportive roles in both films.
In 2009, Afdlin produced the film Papadom, a story about a distracted, busy father who loses his wife in an accident, and ends up becoming over-protective of his only daughter. This bittersweet comedy drama garnered multiple awards at the 22nd Malaysian Film Festival on the same year for the categories of Best Original Story, Best Actor, Best Film, as well as Best Music Score for Film. Afdlin and his co-star Liyana Jasmay also won the Couple With Best Chemistry in the 2010 Shout Awards organized by 8TV. "Papadom" was in competition in the Asia Pacific International Film Festival held in Taiwan in December 2009. The film also competed in the Osaka Asian Film Festival 2010 in the International Competition and received 3rd place out of 12 movies taking part in the Audience Choice Award. "Papadom" was re-made as a Tamil version for the Malaysian Tamil audience and was released in November 2010.
