Shazia Mirza (Urdu: ????? ?????; born 3 October 1979) is an English stand-up comedian, actress, and writer of Pakistani heritage. She is notable for her dead pan delivery and ground-breaking material especially sharp one liners. Her latest critically acclaimed show is "The Kardashians Made Me Do It" (2016).
Video Shazia Mirza
Early life
Mirza was born in Birmingham, England, in 1979 as the eldest daughter to Pakistani Muslim parents who moved to Birmingham in the 1960s.
Earlier in her life, Mirza was a science teacher in a secondary school and taught Dizzee Rascal, now a rapper. Mirza read Biochemistry at the University of Manchester and then did a Postgraduate Certificate in Education at Goldsmiths, University of London. She also attended Rose Bruford College where she studied acting. On 24 September 2010 Mirza was awarded an Honorary Fellowship to Rose Bruford College, Sir Richard Eyre was made President of the college at the same ceremony.
Maps Shazia Mirza
Career
Stand-up
About a year into her stand-up comedy career, Mirza gained UK-wide publicity in the months when the world was coming to terms with the September 11, 2001 attacks. This was because at this time she would begin with the deadpan remark, "My name is Shazia Mirza. At least, that's what it says on my pilot's licence". She was profiled as a ground breaking comedian on CBS 60 Minutes America's oldest and most watched newsmagazine where she was interviewed by the legendary Ed Bradley. In April 2007, she presented a documentary on BBC Three called F*** Off, I'm a Hairy Woman which was the highest rating TV Show for BBC Three at that time. She has since performed stand up comedy on many TV shows around the world, USA, Canada, Holland, Paris, UK. Performing at Winnipeg Comedy Festival Canada (4 times) Halifax Comedy Festival Nova Scotia Canada, Lund Comedy Festival Sweden 2012, 2014, 2015 & 2017 Malmö Comedy Festival 2013, Kings and Queens of Comedy Singapore 2016 & 2013. She has performed at Glastonbury Festival numerous time, Ilkley Literature Festival 2012 & 2016, Hay Festival 2012 & 2016, Dalkey Book Festival alongside Bob Geldof, Michael Gambon, and Brian Eno, Wirksworth Comedy Festival 2016, Latitude Festival 2016, Cat Laughs Comedy Festival Kilkenny Ireland 2016 & Galway Comedy Festival 2016. She performed many times with Robin Williams at The Throckmorton Theatre Mill Valley, California. She has performed at The Edinburgh Festival for many years doing around seven solo shows. Her latest show 'The Kardashians Made Me Do It' has been a critically acclaimed sell out 71 date tour, including 4 sell out runs at London's Soho Theatre, gaining rave reviews
The show has been performed in the UK, Sweden, Ireland and France and been written about in numerous publications all over the world. It has been described as a brave and groundbreaking piece of comedy.
Writing
Mirza is a prolific writer has been a regular columnist for The Guardian since 2008. In 2006, she also began writing a fortnightly column in the New Statesman magazine, for which she won Columnist of the Year 2008 at the prestigious PPA Awards. She has had a regular column in Dawn News, www.DAWN.Com, published on a Saturday. She has also written numerous in depth articles for FT Magazine The Daily Telegraph and more recently for Chicago Tribune. A piece written for the FT Magazine on 12 February 2016 titled 'From playground to warzone' was the most read article in the FT Magazine that week.
Television
Mirza appeared on The Jonathan Ross Show in March 2016 with Hugh Jackman, Taron Egerton, and Luke Evans. Also appeared a guest on Loose Women and The Late Late Show Ireland (RTE1)- The world's longest running chat show. She is a regular panelist on the Channel 5 topical discussion series The Wright Stuff. In 2016, she appeared as a panelist on The Dog Ate My Homework. She has also appeared on Have I Got News for You with Boris Johnson. She also played a main role in Episode 2 of the sitcom The Vessel playing an inconsiderate Doctor. Since then she has been in a short film Aleeza Harriett & Mrs.Milton and a feature film 'Arifa'. In 2010 Mirza appeared with Jeff Goldblum on Midweek presented by Libby Purves. She has also done the 'Pause for Thought' live on BBC Radio 2 on the Vanessa Feltz show every week since 2013 Shazia appeared on The Graham Norton Show on BBC Radio 2 in January 2017. In March 2017 she appeared on BBC's Top Gear as the star in the reasonably fast car. In September 2017 she appeared in Celebrity The Island with Bear Grylls Channel 4. She was one of the final six people who survived to the end.
Awards and recognition
- 2002 Winner of The London Comedy Festival and Hackney Empire New Act of the Year
- 2002 Runner Up Birmingham Comedy Festival
- 2003, The Observer lists her as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy.
- 2008, Awarded Columnist of the Year at PPA Awards 2008 for her bi-weekly column in the New Statesman magazine which she shared with the comedian Julian Clary
- 2009 Semi-finalist on NBC's Last Comic Standing season 6 in the United States
- 2010 Awarded an Honorary Fellowship to Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance
- 2010 Winner AWA The Arts and Culture Award.
- 2016 Named as one of the most influential Londoners in the annual London Evening Standard "1000 Most Influential People in London" in the comedy category.
References
External links
- Official website
- Shazia Mirza on IMDb
- TV Clips
Source of article : Wikipedia
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