Jeff Mirza

Jeffrey Mirza (born 3 February 1964) is a British stand-up comedian and actor.

Mirza was born as Jeffrey Mirza and brought up in East End of London, England on 3 February 1964^[1][2] to Pakistani parents.^[3] His family are from the Punjab region of Pakistan and are of Mughal descent. His paternal grandfather was Dr Mirza Taj Baig, a doctor with the rank of Major and one of the first South Asians to be a Commissioned Officer in the British Army. His paternal grandfather (Abdur Rehman Mirza) was a Zaildar (Headman for 40 villages) in the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir before the Partition. His family came from Pakistan and settled in the UK in the early 1950s.

Mirza attended Barking Abbey Comprehensive School. At the age of 12, he was caned (beaten with a stick by a teacher) to punish him for doing an impression of the television character Columbo. At the age of 14, Mirza had his first stint at live comedy when he told anecdotes about his summer holiday trip to Pakistan for assembly at Loxford High School. After graduating from the University of Westminster with a Bachelor in Civil Engineering degree and a master's degree in Engineering,^[3] he informally began performing with a comedy groups called The Men from ChaCha. One of their famous sketches was a dance parody of the Chippendales called "The Chappattidales".^[4]

In 1993, Mirza won the Hackney Empire East West Quest and he went solo into stand-up and since then has not looked back. He has written pieces for magazines and is well known on the London comedy circuit.^[4] In 1995, he was a finalist in the BBC Open Mic Award for The Stand up Show at the Edinburgh festival.^[5] The same year (1995) he co-starred in a full-length show with Scottish Comedian Brian Higgins in a show called 'Haggis & Curry'. Since that initial success he gave up his job as a structural engineer and began work as a full-time stand-up comedian. In the Asian comedy field he has worked with and for the 'One Nation. ..lnnit!' Team based at Watermans in Brentford and has also played all the major comedy clubs and is a regular at Jongleurs Comedy Clubs.^[5]

In 2003, he performed his show Walking With Muslims at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.^[6] The show 'Walking with Muslims' coincided with the 2003 Iraq War and gained worldwide acclaim as Jeff Mirza appeared as dictator Saddam Hussein who was on the run at the time. He has played the comedy circuit in London including Jongleurs and The Comedy Store.^[7][8] He has performed all over the world, and is the first British Muslim comedian ever to perform stand-up comedy to sell out shows in Saudi Arabia.

He is regularly involved with interfaith dialogue between different communities and often called in to lighten-up and moderate contentious debates between multi-faith conservatives.^[9]

In July 2011, Mirza toured four UK cities^[10] in the Peace Youth and Community Trust's (PYCT) first Muslim Comedy Tour, alongside Humza Arshad, Prince Abdi and Nabil Abdul Rashid.^[11][12][13] From June to 28 August 2011, he presented a series of eight programmes in the world's first interfaith game show called Faith Off on the Islam Channel at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Underbelly, Cowgate, Edinburgh.^[9][14] He also performed his show Jihad: Heresy Or Hearsay.^[15][16] He has also appeared at the Leicester Comedy Festival and Glastonbury Festival.^[17]

Mirza is now developing a television sitcom and writing new material for a world tour.^[8]

Mirza's film credits include "What's Love Got to do with it", Blinded by the Light, Mogul Mowgli,^[7] It Was an Accident^[8][18] and Desi Boyz.^[9]

His television appearances include White Teeth, Chuckle Vision, Murder in Mind and Doctors.^[9]

In 1995, reached the finals off the BBC Open Mic Award.^[11][12]

In 2001, Mirza won the "Best Comedian" award in the BT Ethnic Multicultural Media Academy Awards.^[19] In 2003,^[7] he won the Ethnic Multicultural Media Academy Comedy award which was held at London's Dorchester Hotel where the chief guest was Sir Richard Attenborough. The other nominees were Richard Blackwood, Felix Dexter and Gina Yashere.^[8] In 2018 Jeff Mirza was Awarded a BEFFTA Legends Award.

Mirza is a West Ham United football fan.^[20] He is married and has children.

• Islamic humour
• British Pakistanis
• List of British Pakistanis

• Official website
• Jeff Mirza at IMDb
• Jeff Mirza on Twitter
• Gibbons, Fiachra. Jeff Mirza: Walking With Muslims. The Guardian. 4 August 2003
• Jeff Mirza, British Comedian Dressed As Gaddafi, Attacked. The Huffington Post. 21 August 2011
• Comedian attacked while wearing Gadhafi costume. The San Francisco Examiner. 21 August 2011
• Jeff Mirza’s Jihad; Heresy or Hearsay?^{[permanent dead link]}. Underbelly, Cowgate, Edinburgh. 4 to 28 August 2011