At 29, Abdul Rashid made history becoming the youngest black comedian to perform stand-up at the Hammersmith Apollo. Although suffering from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, he wrote, acted and directed on The Show and has toured with his religious comedy show Don’t Panic, I’m Islamic.

He told Al Arabiya News, “Black comedy in the UK has been asleep for a long time, but is finally waking up and doing so in a big way. We’ve never had so many comics doing the mainstream comedy circuit at the same time, nor have we ever had so many conscious comics as we do now.

“I think if this continues then the black and ethnic minority experience can’t be ignored, and we’ll hopefully take our narrative on race discussion to the mainstream, whether in film, radio or print. Our voices are stronger than ever.”

Last year, he took part in Muslims Like Us, a two-part BBC series where 10 Muslims were selected to live together in a house aiming to bring Muslims with contrasting world views together to interact and debate with each other.

According to reports, the show has received a mixed reaction on social media so far, with some people praising the promotion of Islam and trying to tackle Islamophobia by showing the diversity of the faith, while others disagreeing with it as a social experiment.

Abdul Rashid has also been given back to community as he encourages inner-city children to use comedy as an alternative form of expression. He has been able to achieve this in schools across London through his comedy workshop, Norbury Comedy Club, co-founded with Ola Gbaja.

Abdulrashid is married to a British Pakistani-Punjabi and they have a daughter. He was born in North London, England to a medical doctor father and a politician/businesswoman mother.

Nigerian-British comedian Nabil Abdulrashid

Rachel Ogbu

UK Based Strategic, multidisciplinary Writer with an eye for innovation and pixel perfection. MA in New Media and Internet Technologies. “Although my skill set is vast, my greatest expertise revolve in the worlds of social media, content creation and print collateral. My wish is to combine my knowledge and experience in these areas, to deliver the best creative to my employer’s clients and their audiences.”