Jeffrey Mirza is an English stand-up comedian and actor of British-Pakistani descent.
Early life
Mirza was born and brought up in East End of London, England to Pakistani parents. His family are from the Punjab region of Pakistan and are of Mughal descent. His Paternal Grandfather was a Doctor with the rank of Major and was one of the first Indians to be a Commissioned Officer in the British Army. His Paternal Grandfather was a Zaildar in Jammu & Kashmir State before the Partition. Mirza attended Barking Abbey Comprehensive School. 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 Batchelors Civil Engineering degree and with a master's degree in Engineering, 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".
Stand-up career
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. In 1995, he was a finalist in the BBC Open Mic Award for The Stand up Show at the Edinburgh festival. The same year 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 JongleursComedy Clubs. In 2003, he performed his show Walking With Muslims at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. 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. 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. In July 2011, Mirza toured four UK cities in the Peace Youth and Community Trust's first Muslim Comedy Tour, alongside Humza Arshad, Prince Abdi and Nabil Abdul Rashid. 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. He also performed his show Jihad: Heresy Or Hearsay. Mirza is now developing a television sitcom and writing new material for a world tour.
Acting career
Mirza's film credits include Bend It Like Beckham, , It Was an Accident and Desi Boyz. His television appearances include White Teeth, Chuckle Vision, Murder in Mind and Doctors.
Comedy style and reception
Mirza challenges stereotypes in his acclaimed live shows. "The sharpest Asian stand up on the alternative comedy circuit, but also Britain's best loved Asian comedian" – Time Out. "Excellent" – Andrew Martin, London Evening Standard. "Europe's Top Asian Comedian" – Andy Beckett, The Guardian. "Sharp witted rising star" – William Cook, The Guardian. "Comedy jihad. His warm, incisive, wit-strewn comedy celebrates the absurd" – The Guardian.
