Fawad Siddiqui

Last updated

Fawad Siddiqui is an American actor, improvisational comedian, journalist and cartoonist.

Contents

He began acting professionally in TV and film in 2008 and first appeared on the USA Network television show Burn Notice alongside Bruce Campbell and Jeffrey Donovan, then in the George Clooney film The Men Who Stare At Goats with Ewan McGregor, and in the indie films The Bait and Festival of Lights —starring Jimi Mistry and Aidan Quinn. He also had a role in Queen Latifah produced sequel The Cookout Part 2—starring Charlie Murphy, Mike Tyson and Faizon Love—and had a recurring role on the fifth season of the Lifetime Network series Army Wives . He also appeared in the latest season of the FX/The Audience Network series Damages —starring Glenn Close, Rose Byrne and John Goodman—as the shady Afghan information broker Shahbaz Gul opposite Dylan Baker, and in the French comedy Bienvenue à Bord—opposite popular French comedic actors Franck Dubosc and Valérie Lemercier, released in October 2011. He was featured in the 2013 indie drama Sunlight Jr. , from critically acclaimed director Laurie Collyer, in the role of Jamshed opposite Matt Dillon and Naomi Watts. He played the role of Mohammed Al Ghamdi alongside Rupert Friend in the second season of the Emmy Award-winning Showtime series Homeland , starring Claire Danes and Mandy Patinkin. In 2014, he appeared as Arash on the season 2 premier of USA's Graceland with Aaron Tveit . In 2017, he appeared as a mosque Imam on 24: Legacy on Fox and as Dr. Ravi Govilla opposite Kyle Chandler on the Netflix original series Bloodline .

In 2018, he also co-starred as one of the main comedic villains, Leo, opposite comedian Paul Rodriguez in Rodriguez' the comedic film Chateau Vato, which eventually premiered at the 2020 Miami International Film Festival and was subsequently released on HBO Max . He also had a guest appearance on the Project Greenlight winning series Grown, which was the premiere fictional series on The Complex. In 2019, he had the role of Younas in the Casey Afleck film Our Friend , from critically acclaimed director Gabriela Cowperthwaite. He then appeared on NBC's The Blacklist starring James Spader as the top local Iranian CIA contact employed by Red Reddington's friend Farhad to drive Harold Cooper, played by Harry Lennix, on his mission in the country on the Season 7 episode 'Kuwait'. In 2020, Siddiqui appeared on the Gold Globe winning series Ramy with star Ramy Youssef on Hulu. He also had a recurring guest-star role as Professor Dawley on the first season of the series The Zombie Chronicles, from creator Lisa Waring, a slice of life series about a young, aspiring hip-hop artist/zombie in a world where zombies are a normal part of life. That year he also voice-directed and co-starred in the animated film Box Life, from writer/director Michael Sirjue. In 2021, Siddiqui appeared as head hospital lawyer Neil Persaud on the hit show New Amsterdam on NBC opposite Tyler Labine, and as murder suspect Muhammed Qadir on the long-running CBS crime-drama Blue Bloods opposite stars Donnie Wahlberg and Marisa Ramirez. In 2022, Siddiqui voiced the recurring character JR, a bumbling squadroom cop on the first season of the Amazon Prime original Mexican comedy series Harina, based on a viral hit comedic sketch from popular video sketch comedy group Backdoor. He also guest-starred on the hit CBS series FBI, produced by Dick Wolf, as mercenary Tamir Hazara, an old arch-nemesis of series star Zeeko Zaki's Agent OA Zidan, who returns from apparent death in Afghanistan to wreak vengeance in New York City. Siddiqui has also recently completed work as a recurring character on the upcoming 2023 Paramount+ series Lioness, starring Zoe Saldana, Nicole Kidman and Laysla de Oliveira.

Siddiqui has also appeared in commercials for Home Depot, Capital One, Math Wizard, Danbury Hospital and others. He regularly performs with such South Florida improvisational troupes as Laughing Gas and Impromedy, with the Improv Playhouse in Libertyville, Illinois, and with the Steel City Improv Theater in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is currently a co-director and performer with The Front Yard Theater Collective which produces a monthly variety show at the historic Olympia Theater in Miami.

Siddiqui is also a cartoonist, having created a new field of live illustration of improvised theater shows, which he does for improv theaters throughout the country.

Journalism

Siddiqui studied journalism in college and graduated from the University of Miami in 2003 with a degree in English and Communication. After graduation, he moved to Indianapolis and worked for Islamic Horizons Magazine in Plainfield as an assistant editor [1] and then to Chicago for a time as reporting fellow with Northwestern University's Academy for Alternative Journalism and the Chicago Reader in 2004. [2] He has also freelanced for The Miami Herald [3] and The Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel , including helping to cover the local Muslim community reaction to the Sept. 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks. His efforts to improv local news coverage of the Muslim community at this time was covered by the Miami New Times . He was also a section editor for the nationally syndicated Muslim community newspaper The Muslim Observer , covering the South Florida area. [4]

Acting & improvisation

Siddiqui would later return to Miami and discover improvisational theater through the Laughing Gas Theater Company. Eventually, he would go on to study improv at Chicago's famous ImprovOlympic and Second City Theaters.[ citation needed ] He has also studied at Orlando's SAK Comedy Lab, and at New York's PIT and Magnet Theaters.

Today, he splits his time between his native Miami, Florida, New York, Los Angeles and Pittsburgh, PA, working as an actor and in improv throughout the United States, including performances at the Gainesville Improv Festival and at the Del Close Marathon in New York. He is a regular team member with Laughing Gas Improv, Impromedy, Sick Puppies, The Front Yard Theater Collective, Wunderstudies: The Improvised Musical, The Cellar Dwellers, The Pittsburgh Improv Jam, the Steel City Improv Theater, and They Improv.

In 2009, Siddiqui also taught workshops on Improvisational Acting at the National Academy of Performing Arts (NAPA) in Karachi, Pakistan.

Cartooning

During his time studying and performing improvisation in Chicago in 2008, Siddiqui developed a new form of cartooning by creating live cartoon versions of long-form improv shows, primarily at ImprovOlympic Theater, but also at other area theaters including The Second City, the Annoyance and the Playground. He has since produced hundreds of such illustrations, being hired by many prominent improv teams around the country in the field to catalogue their work at those and at other theaters including iOWest and The Groundlings Theater in Los Angeles, the Upright Citizens Brigade in New York, Theatre 99 in Charleston, South Carolina, the Steel City Improv Theater in Pittsburgh and elsewhere. He has illustrated shows for teams at The Chicago Sketchfest, The Chicago Improv Festival, the Del Close Marathon, and the Gainesville Improv Festival.

Music

Siddiqui also founded a satiric comedic acoustic eclectic folk fusion band in college called The Muslim Cowboys and performed with them at Islamic events throughout the country. [5]

Notes

  1. ↑ "Home - ISNA". ISNA.
  2. ↑ "Academy for Alternative Journalism 2004 Fellows Chosen - Association News - AltWeeklies.com". posting.altweeklies.com.
  3. ↑ "Miami Herald: Search Results". nl.newsbank.com.
  4. ↑ "The Muslim Observer". Archived from the original on 2011-02-16. Retrieved 2011-02-17.
  5. ↑ Jamat Archived 2009-11-30 at the Wayback Machine , a British website covering Muslim community news.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Improvisational theatre</span> Theatrical genre featuring unscripted performance

Improvisational theatre, often called improvisation or improv, is the form of theatre, often comedy, in which most or all of what is performed is unplanned or unscripted, created spontaneously by the performers. In its purest form, the dialogue, action, story, and characters are created collaboratively by the players as the improvisation unfolds in present time, without use of an already prepared, written script.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wayne Brady</span> American television personality

Wayne Alphonso Brady is an American television personality, comedian, actor, and singer. He is a regular on the American version of the improvisational comedy television series Whose Line Is It Anyway? He was the host of the daytime talk show The Wayne Brady Show, was the original host of Fox's Don't Forget the Lyrics!, and has hosted Let's Make a Deal since its 2009 revival. Brady also performed in the Tony Award–winning musical Kinky Boots on Broadway as Simon—who is also drag queen Lola—from November 2015 to March 2016, and as James Stinson on the American TV series How I Met Your Mother.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tim Meadows</span> American actor and comedian (born 1961)

Timothy Meadows is an American actor, comedian, and writer. Meadows was one of the longest-running cast members on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live, where he appeared for ten seasons from 1991 to 2000. For his work on SNL, he received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series in 1993. He played main character John Glascott on the ABC sitcom Schooled for its two-season run after playing the same character in a recurring role for six seasons on The Goldbergs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matt Besser</span> American actor and comedian

Matthew Gregory Besser is an American actor, comedian, director, producer, and writer, best known as one of the four founding members of the Upright Citizens Brigade sketch comedy troupe, who had their own show on Comedy Central from 1998 to 2000. He currently hosts the improvisation-based podcast Improv4humans on the Earwolf podcasting network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Koechner</span> American actor and comedian

David Michael Koechner is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for playing roles such as Champ Kind in the Anchorman films and Todd Packer on NBC's The Office.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matt Walsh (comedian)</span> American actor and comedian

Matthew Paul Walsh is an American comedian and actor, best known for his role as Mike McLintock in Veep for which he received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations. He is a founding member of the Upright Citizens Brigade sketch comedy troupe, with which he co-starred in the original television series and the 2015 reboot. He also previously starred in short-lived comedy programs such as Dog Bites Man and Players, and was a correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. He has also appeared in films such as Road Trip (2000), Bad Santa (2003), School for Scoundrels (2006), Role Models (2008), The Hangover (2009) and The Do-Over (2016).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ian Roberts (American actor)</span> American actor, comedian and writer (born 1965)

Ian Michael Roberts is an American actor, comedian and writer. Roberts is a founding member of the famed Upright Citizens Brigade improv and sketch comedy troupe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rob Huebel</span> American actor, comedian and writer

Robert Anderson Huebel is an American actor, comedian and writer best known for his sketch comedy work on the MTV series Human Giant and for his role of Dr. Owen Maestro on the Adult Swim series Childrens Hospital. He also appeared as Russell on the FX/FXX series The League and as Len Novak on the Amazon Prime Video series Transparent. In December 2022, Entertainment Weekly called Huebel "the premier d-bag character actor of his generation".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dan Bakkedahl</span> American actor and comedian

Dan Bakkedahl is an American actor and improvisational comedian. He is best known for starring as Tim Hughes on the CBS sitcom Life in Pieces, as Congressman Roger Furlong on the HBO series Veep, and as Steve Nugent in the FX comedy series Legit. From 2005 to 2007, he was a correspondent for three seasons on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. He additionally has recurring roles on the ABC sitcom The Goldbergs, the HBO Max comedy series Made for Love, and the Netflix comedy Space Force.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gary Anthony Williams</span> American actor

Gary Anthony Williams is an American actor, comedian and filmmaker. He has voiced the characters of Uncle Ruckus on The Boondocks, General Horace Warfield in StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty and Dr. Richard Tygan in XCOM 2. He has also appeared on shows such as Boston Legal, I'm Sorry, Malcolm in the Middle and The Soul Man. He was a cast member on the sketch comedy series Blue Collar TV and currently the improv comedy series Whose Line Is It Anyway?. He is also a co-founder of the L.A. Comedy Shorts Film Festival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeff B. Davis</span> American actor and comedian

Jeffrey Bryan Davis is an American actor, impressionist and comedian. He is known for his work as a recurring performer on the improv comedy show Whose Line Is It Anyway? From July 2016 until October 2019, he has starred as the Goblin Hero Boneweevil on the VRV Direct original production HarmonQuest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gene Gabriel</span> American actor

Gene Gabriel is a Cuban-American actor and writer most notable for originating the role of "Rodriguez" in Richard Greenberg's award-winning play Take Me Out in London and on Broadway. He is also co-founder of South Florida improv troupe Just The Funny. Most recently he has been recurring on CBS's Numb3rs and NBC's Days of Our Lives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hayley Marie Norman</span> American actress

Hayley Marie Norman is an American actress, writer, and creator best known for her roles in Kenan, A.P. Bio, Hancock, Chris Rock's Top Five, Adam Ruins Everything, Fired Up!, and Norbit.

<i>Whose Line Is It Anyway?</i> (American TV series) American improv TV series

Whose Line Is It Anyway? is an American improvisational comedy television show, and is an adaptation of the British show of the same name. It originally aired on ABC and ABC Family from August 5, 1998 to December 15, 2007, hosted by Drew Carey. A revival of the show, hosted by Aisha Tyler, began airing on The CW on July 16, 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Tenderloins</span> Comedy troupe

The Tenderloins are an American comedy troupe composed of James "Murr" Murray, Brian "Q" Quinn, and Sal Vulcano. The group stars in the television series Impractical Jokers, which premiered on December 15, 2011. The program airs on truTV in the U.S. and on Comedy Central in the UK, Ireland, and India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zach Woods</span> American actor

Zachary Woods is an American actor, comedian, writer, director and producer. He is best known for his roles as a series regular for three seasons as Gabe Lewis on the NBC sitcom The Office, as Jared Dunn on the HBO comedy series Silicon Valley, as Zach Harper on the USA Network sitcom Playing House, and as Matt Spencer on the HBO comedy show Avenue 5. He also recurred on the HBO series Veep as Ed Webster.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adam Pally</span> American actor, comedian and writer

Adam Saul Pally is an American actor, comedian, writer, and producer. He is best known for starring as Max Blum in the ABC comedy series Happy Endings and as Dr. Peter Prentice in The Mindy Project. He also starred in the FOX comedy Making History and was the executive producer of The President Show.

Charles Henry Sanders is an American actor, comedian, and Writers Guild Award–winning writer best known for starring as Officer Joe Stubeck in the MTV comedy-action series Death Valley, writing on all five seasons of Key & Peele and creating the YouTube Premium series Weird City. He is currently hosting the hit podcast 'Bald Talk' on iHeartMedia with comedian and actor Brian Huskey.

Ali Reza Farahnakian is an American actor, writer, and improvisational comedian. He is the founder of The Peoples Improv Theater in NYC and co-starred in the Adult Swim comedy series Delocated.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.