My family is Muslim. But I don't consider myself a very devout Muslim, but a cultural Muslim, whatever that means. Aasif Mandvi culturaldevoutfamily Change image and share on social
I'm Muslim the way many of my Jewish friends are Jewish: I avoid pork, and I take the big holidays off. Aasif Mandvi avoidbigfriend Change image and share on social
The longer I spent time on 'The Daily Show,' standing in front of a green screen pretending to report from war zones and hot spots around the world - most often from somewhere in the Middle East - the more I began to realize that 'The Daily Show' was radicalizing me. Aasif Mandvi begindailyeast share on social
I was born in India - but never really lived there. Aasif Mandvi bearindialive Change image and share on social
I always used to watch 'The Daily Show,' and there were all these comedic geniuses there. I didn't know if I was going to be hired full time or not. At the beginning, I was sort of hired as a part time, on and off guy. When I first got hired - it was August 2006 - and I was working on and off, and they'd call me whenever. Aasif Mandvi augustbegincall share on social
They wanted to audition people for the Middle East correspondent on 'The Daily Show.' They wanted to hire somebody ethnic for that slot. Helms had left, Cordry had left, and they felt that they needed an ethnic face. So, I went in and auditioned, and I got the job. Aasif Mandvi auditioncordrycorrespondent share on social
In order to change the conversation about Muslims in American media, we need a diverse, unified movement of people who are willing to take a stand against anti-Muslim bias. Aasif Mandvi americanantibias Change image and share on social
I was born in Mumbai, but I grew up in England, and then my adulthood has been in the States. I'm an American stuffed with an English person with an Indian person inside. I feel like those things kind of inform me in some way, which I think helps me as an actor. Aasif Mandvi actoradulthoodamerican share on social
The great joy of doing 'The Daily Show' for me is that I get to sit on the fence between cultures. I am commenting on the absurdity of both sides as an outsider and insider. Sometimes I'm playing the brown guy, and sometimes I'm not, but the best stuff I do always goes back to being a brown kid in a white world. Aasif Mandvi absurditybackbrown share on social
I'm free to see things objectively because I don't consider myself American, and I don't consider myself British or Indian. I'm kind of an amalgam or mongrel of a lot of different places and experiences. In a lot of ways it's been a good thing for me. It's enabled me to do what I do on 'The Daily Show.' Aasif Mandvi amalgamamericanbritish share on social