Early life and education
Nicholas George Mohammed [1] was born October 1980 in Leeds, England. [2] His mother was a Cyprus-born general practitioner and his Trinidad-born father worked in law. [3]
Mohammed was educated at Abbey Grange High School in Leeds. He turned down an offer to study at the University of Cambridge and instead chose to study for a BSc in Geophysics at Durham University [4] , where he was a member of St Aidan's College [5] and played violin in the university orchestra. [6] He auditioned for the Durham Revue twice but failed to get in, and instead frequented the local comedy circuit. [7]
After graduating from Durham in 2003, Mohammed began studying for a PhD in seismology/geophysics at Magdalene College, Cambridge [6] but did not complete a PhD in there, dropping out to pursue comedy. His interest in comedy whilst there prompted him to audition for the Cambridge Footlights, which he did successfully. [8] [9]
Career
Mohammed featured in the second series of BBC One's Reggie Perrin and was a co-presenter in BBC Three comedy series The King Is Dead alongside Simon Bird and Katy Wix. [10] He made guest appearances in Pete & Dud: The Lost Sketches, Miranda , [10] How Not to Live Your Life and Life's Too Short , [10] and appeared in Series 2 Episode 4 of the BBC Radio 4 musical comedy show Alex Horne Presents The Horne Section. [10]
Following his Radio 4 debut (Quarters), Mohammed had a second series Nick Mohammed in Bits. [11] He was a cast member of BAFTA-nominated CBBC sketch show Sorry, I've Got No Head , and supported Angelos Epithemiou (as one of his radio show characters, Mr Swallow) on his 2010 national tour. [10] He had a supporting role in all three series of the C4 comedy Drifters. [10]
Mohammed is known for his character, Mr Swallow, a megalomaniac magician. [12] He created the character's voice and attitude after his English teacher in secondary school who spoke in the same high-pitched Northern voice Mr Swallow does, and the name coming from the fact she would swallow a lot in between sentences. [13] [12] [14] He first developed the character while in Cambridge Footlights. [2]
Mohammed developed The Mr Swallow Show for BBC Television and wrote and starred in an original comedy-drama Magic for Channel 4 as part of the Coming Up Scheme. He appeared in CBBC show Hank Zipzer as Mr. Love. He made a guest appearance in the final episode of series 1 and first episode of series 2 of Uncle . [10] In 2015, he joined the cast of ITV comedy The Job Lot. He wrote and starred in two series of 'Detective Sergeant Nick Mohammed', a comedy set in a police station, for BBC Radio 4. [15]
In 2018, he voiced Piglet in the Disney film Christopher Robin . Also in 2018, it was announced that he would collaborate on a new comedy series titled Intelligence with David Schwimmer for Sky One. [16] In 2019, Mohammed appeared in the second series of Stath Lets Flats . [10] From 2020 to 2023, he played Nathan "Nate" Shelley in the Apple TV+ series Ted Lasso , which ran for three seasons on Apple TV+. [10] In 2023, Mohammed starred as a policeman in the film Maggie Moore(s) , alongside Jon Hamm and Tina Fey. [17] He was a contestant on the 17th series of the Channel 4 show Taskmaster , which launched in March 2024. [18]
In 2024, he appeared in the fifth season of Apple TV+'s Slow Horses as Mayor Zafar Jaffrey. In 2025, he starred in the action comedy film Deep Cover alongside Bryce Dallas Howard and Orlando Bloom [19] . later that year, Mohammed opened A Christmas Carol (ish) at @sohoplace in London's West End for a Christmas run. The show was a re-telling of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol with Mr Swallow as the protagonist, also starring Martha Howe-Douglas, David Elms, and Kieran Hodgson. He originally developed the show at Soho Theatre in 2022. [20] [21]
In 2025, he toured the UK as Mr Swallow in new live show, Show Pony with dates extended into 2026. [22] He also appeared as a contestant on The Celebrity Traitors . [23] He said "This is the first thing I've ever done as myself." [24]
Views
Mohammed has said that he has personally experienced very little racism, but that ‘Often white men stumble upwards into positions of power.' [25]
Personal life
Mohammed learned the violin as a child and played in his university orchestra, at St Aidan’s College at Durham University. [37] There he met his wife, Becca, whom he married in 2014. [38] [39] They have three children. [40] [41]
Mohammed moved to Richmond, London 2014, and lived there for nearly a decade before moving out. [2] His eldest son, Finn, has an eidetic memory, which was showcased when they both appeared on an episode of 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown . [14] [42]
Mohammed is allergic to fish and seafood. [43]
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.
