Biography
Aasif Hakim Mandviwala, professionally known as Aasif Mandvi, was born on March 5, 1966. He is a British-American actor, comedian, and author. His television debut was as a doorman at the Miami Biltmore Hotel in the "Line of Fire" episode of Miami Vice. In 2006, Mandvi auditioned for The Daily Show, was hired immediately, and appeared on the show the same day. He first appeared as an occasional correspondent on August 9, 2006, and was promoted to a regular correspondent on March 12, 2007. In October 2013, a segment on The Daily Show featuring his interview with Don Yelton resulted in Yelton's resignation from the North Carolina Republican Party office.
In 2013, Mandvi took a recurring role in FOX's romantic comedy Us & Them. Starting in June 2015, he played Rafiq Massoud in HBO's comedy series The Brink, where he also contributed as a writer and co-producer. That same year, he was the lead actor, co-writer, and producer of the web series Halal in the Family, which premiered on Funny or Die. In 2016, he became a celebrity correspondent on the climate change documentary series Years of Living Dangerously.
From 2017, Mandvi had a brief recurring role on Netflix's A Series of Unfortunate Events as Montgomery "Uncle Monty" Montgomery, a herpetologist and distant relative of the Baudelaire orphans. In 2019, he starred as Ben Shakir in CBS's supernatural drama Evil, portraying a carpenter who serves as a technical expert, equipment handler, and debunker of supernatural phenomena. His other recurring roles include appearances on Oz, CSI, Tanner on Tanner, The Bedford Diaries, Jericho, Blue Bloods, Younger, and This Way Up. He also hosted the game show Would I Lie to You? in 2022.
Mandvi has had minor roles in films such as The Siege and Die Hard with a Vengeance. He portrayed the doctor diagnosing Paul Vitti's panic attacks in Analyze This, and played Mr. Aziz of "Joe's Pizza" in Spider-Man 2. He appeared as the tone-deaf doorman Khan in Music and Lyrics, a dentist alongside Ricky Gervais in Ghost Town, Bob Spaulding in The Proposal, and had a role in It's Kind of a Funny Story.
In M. Night Shyamalan's 2010 film The Last Airbender, he played the significant role of Commander Zhao. He also portrayed Mr. Chetty in The Internship and Ash Vasudevan in Million Dollar Arm. His filmography includes Random Hearts, Margin Call, Dark Horse, The Dictator, Ruby Sparks, Premium Rush, Movie 43, Mother's Day, Drunk Parents, and others.
