Assia Loutfi
Shazia Mirza
Shazia Mirza is a 36 year old comedian. Before becoming a stand up comedian she once teached science in a secondary school. She realized that she didn’t want to be a teacher; she found that she only enjoyed teaching when she made her students laugh. That’s when she decided to focus on her career as a stand up comedian. Her goal is to combat Islamophobia with her humour.
In 2003 one of her acts was one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy.
She has been a regular columnist for The Guardian since 2004. In 2008 she even won Columnist of the Year award.
Sadia Azmat
Sadia Azmat grew up in London. Her most famous spectacle is “I am not Malala”. In June 2015 she made a short film called Things I Have Been Asked As a British Muslim as part of the British Muslim Comedy series. Her jokes are more centered on her experience in a call center, the typical Asian mum jokes and well, the fact that she is not Malala.
Amzat is also a YouTuber. Her channel is
Bend It TV and is aimed to providing the news from an Asian perspective.
Aamer Rahman & Nazeem Hussain.
Aamer is known for his political humour and his jokes about racism in Australia.
He is 31 years old and is of Bangladeshi descent.
You can’t talk about Aamer Rahman without talking about his partner in crime, Nazeem Hussain.
A comedian that he met during youth work in the Muslim community, Hussain entered an open mic competition and it is after seeing Hussain compete that Rahman decided to also enter the competition. After that they decided to make their own show that became “The Fear of a Brown Planet” and it was sold out around Australia.
Hassan Minaj
Does this man even need an introduction? He is one of the most famous Muslim stand up comedians and is also a correspondent on the Daily Show. It was Chris Rock that inspired him to become a stand up comedian. In 2008, he won a competition which resulted in his working as an opening act for Katt Williams, Pablo Francisco, and Gabriel Iglesias. It was in 2014 that Minaj joined the Daily Show, first with Jon Stewart and then with Trevor Noah.
Maziyar Jobrani
Maziyar Jobrani better know as Maz Jobrani was born in Iran but moved to California when he was six years old. Maz made also some television appearances. He appeared in Better off Ted, 13 Going On 30 and many others but also did two Ted talks. Jobrani’s jokes focus on race and the stereotyping of Middle Easterners in America.
Maysoon Zayid
Maysoon Zayid is a Palestinian stand-up comedian with cerebral palsy that refuses to allow her disability to determine how she lives her life. She proudly represents herself as a Palestinian, disabled Muslim woman living in New Jersey. She has given an inspiring Ted Talk in 2014 that you can watch here:
