Early life

Mandvi was born in Bombay (now Mumbai), Maharashtra, India, to a Dawoodi Bohra Muslim family. His family moved to England, settling, when he was a year old, in the West Yorkshire city of Bradford, where his father, Hakim, had originally come to work in textiles research at Bradford University, and later ran a corner shop, while his mother, Fatima, was a nurse. Although Mandvi identifies himself as a "working-class kid from Bradford", he attended the independent Woodhouse Grove School. His father grew frustrated with Margaret Thatcher's Britain and moved his family to Tampa, Florida when Mandvi was 16.

Career

Early

After graduating from the University of South Florida with a degree in Theatre, Mandvi worked as a performer at Disney-MGM Studios at Walt Disney World Resort. He later moved to New York City where he began appearing in off-Broadway productions. During this time, he was active in the band Cowboys and Indian. He won an Obie Award for his critically acclaimed one-man show Sakina's Restaurant.

On Broadway, Mandvi appeared as Ali Hakim in the 2002 revival of Oklahoma! directed by Trevor Nunn. He also appeared in the play Homebody/Kabul by Tony Kushner. He portrayed Fritz Haber in the off-Broadway play Einstein's Gift.

Mandvi played Melchior in On the Razzle by Tom Stoppard at the Williamstown Theatre Festival and appeared in the docudrama Guantanamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom at the Culture Project. In 2012 Mandvi starred in Disgraced at Lincoln Center's Claire Tow Theater. He played the lead role of Amir, a Pakistani American lawyer struggling with his identity and Islam in the drama by Ayad Akhtar. The play went on to win the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Television

Mandvi made his television debut as a doorman at the Miami Biltmore Hotel in the episode "Line of Fire" of the series Miami Vice. He has since appeared in numerous television shows including ER, The Sopranos, Sex and the City, CSI, Oz, Ed, The Bedford Diaries, Jericho, Sleeper Cell and various editions of Law & Order, including Criminal Intent, Special Victims Unit and Trial by Jury. He was the book reader for audio editions of Salman Rushdie's Shalimar the Clown (2005) and V. S. Naipaul's Magic Seeds (2004). In 2011 he appeared in Taco Bell commercials.

In 2006, Mandvi auditioned for The Daily Show. He was hired immediately and appeared on the show the same day. Mandvi became a regular correspondent in 2007. He often appears in segments satirizing and commenting on Islamic, Middle-Eastern, and South-Asian-related issues with such titles as "Senior Asian Correspondent," "Senior Middle East Correspondent," "Senior Foreign Looking Correspondent," and "Senior Muslim Correspondent."

In 2013, Mandvi was cast in a recurring role on the FOX romantic comedy, Us & Them.

In October 2013, during a segment on The Daily Show, Mandvi's interview with Don Yelton led to Yelton's resignation from the North Carolina Republican Party office.

In November 2014, he appeared on The Dan Patrick Show. On the show, he revealed the story from his book No Land's Man where his father moved his family to the U.S. because the U.S. has brunch.

Beginning in June 2015, Mandvi portrayed Rafiq Massoud in the HBO comedy series "The Brink". Mandvi also serves as a writer and co-producer on the series. In April 2015, Mandvi appeared on Person of Interest as Sulaiman Khan, the CEO of a software security firm.

Film

Mandvi played minor roles in the films The Siege and Die Hard with a Vengeance as well as the title role in Merchant Ivory Productions' film The Mystic Masseur. He had a major supporting role in the independent film American Chai, playing the lead character's roommate, "Engineering Sam." He played the doctor who diagnosed Paul Vitti's (Robert De Niro) panic attacks in Analyze This, and had a role as Mr. Aziz of "Joe's Pizza" in Spider-Man 2. He was also in commercials by Domino's Pizza and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). He played the tone deaf doorman Khan in Music and Lyrics.

Mandvi played a dentist alongside Ricky Gervais in the 2008 romantic comedy Ghost Town, as well as office employee Bob Spaulding in The Proposal, starring Sandra Bullock. Today's Special, which Mandvi co-wrote with Jonathan Bines, premiered at the London Film Festival in October 2009 and New York's Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council Film Festival on November 11, 2009. He appeared in It's Kind of a Funny Story, a coming-of-age film written and directed by Anna Boden with Ryan Fleck, adapted from the 2006 novel by Ned Vizzini. He also co-starred as a Guantanamo captive in the film The Response, a script based on the transcripts of Combatant Status Review Tribunals convened in Guantanamo in 2004. In M. Night Shyamalan's The Last Airbender (released in 2010) he played a major role as Commander Zhao. Mandvi played the role of Mr. Chetty in the 2013 comedy The Internship, which starred Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson and portrayed Ash Vasudevan in the 2014 film Million Dollar Arm.

Charity work

Mandvi is involved with disaster-relief organizations such as the charity initiative Relief 4 Pakistan, which assists in flood relief in Pakistan. In 2010, he hosted the "Stand Up for Religious Freedom" comedy event to raise money for the organization. After the 2010 Haiti earthquake, he performed with fellow Daily Show correspondent Wyatt Cenac at Conan O'Brien's "I'm with Coco" Benefit for earthquake victims. He is also a supporter of the Endometriosis Foundation of America.

Filmography

Actor

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1990	No Retreat, No Surrender 3: Blood Brothers	Terrorist
1995	Law & Order	"Khan" Video Store Employee	Season 5 Episode 14: "Performance"
	Die Hard with a Vengeance	Arab Cabbie
1996	Eddie	Mohammed
	Nash Bridges	Aziz Kadim	Television Series
1998	The Siege	Khalil Saleh
1999	Hook'd Up	Indian Guy
	Analyze This	Dr. Shulman
	Gofer	Gorby
	Random Hearts	Electronics Store Salesman
	ABCD	Ashok
2001	3 A.M.	Singh
2002	American Chai	Engineering Sam
	The Mystic Masseur	Ganesh
	Book of Kings	Dr. Mitra
	Oz	Dr. Faraj
2003	Undermind	Shark/Roger
2004	Spider-Man 2	Mr. Aziz
	Law & Order: Criminal Intent	Sateesh	Inert Dwarf
2005	Sorry, Haters	Hassan
	The War Within	Abdul
	Law & Order: Trial by Jury	Judge Samir Patel	Bang & Blame, Baby Boom
2006	Freedomland	Dr. Anil Chatterjee
	The Sopranos	Dr. Abu Bilal	1 Episode
	Sleeper Cell	Khalid	Television series
2006-2008	Jericho	Dr. Kenchy Dhuwalia	Television series
2006-present	The Daily Show	Himself	Television series
2007	Music and Lyrics	Khan
2008	Peroxide Passion	Beaumond
	Eavesdrop	Don
	The Understudy	Sarfras
	Ghost Town	Dr. Prashar
2009	The Proposal	Bob Spaulding
	Today's Special	Samir	Also screenwriter
2010	It's Kind of a Funny Story	Dr. Mahmoud
	The Last Airbender	Commander Zhao
2011	Margin Call	Ramesh Shah
	Dark Horse	Mahmoud
	Curb Your Enthusiasm	Guy in elevator	Television series, Episode 10
2012	Premium Rush	Raj
	The Dictator	Doctor
	Ruby Sparks	Cyrus Modi
2013	Movie 43	Robert	Segment "iBabe"
	The Internship	Mr. Roger Chetty
2014	Us & Them	Dave Coaches	Television Series
	Million Dollar Arm	Ash Vasudevan
2015	Madam Secretary	Prince Yousif Obaid	Series 1, Episode 13: "Chains of Command"
	Person of Interest	Suleiman Khan	Season 4 Episode 19: "Search & Destroy"
	The Brink	Rafiq Massoud	Television series, also producer and writer
	Halal In The Family	Aasif Qu'osby	Web series
2016	Blazing Samurai	Ichiro	Filming
	Mother's Day	Russell

Writer

Year	Film	Notes
2009	Today's Special

Stage

Actor

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1993	Suburbia	Norman Chaudry
1995	Death Defying Acts	Delivery Boy	In one-act "Hotline"
1997	Crosscurrents	Paul
1998	Sakina's Restaurant		One man play
2002	Oklahoma!	Ali Hakim	Revival
2012	Disgraced	Amir Kapoor	Lincoln Center/LCT3

Writer

Year	Title	Notes
1998	Sakina's Restaurant
2014	No Land's Man

Published works

• Mandvi, Aasif (2014). No Land's Man. Chronicle Books. ISBN 978-1452107912.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]