Maz Jobrani
Stand-up is the foundation. He was part of the Axis of Evil comedy group, which took its name from a piece of American political rhetoric and put a set of Middle Eastern American comedians onto a Comedy Central special, and for a lot of people that is still the work he is known for.
The screen career runs alongside it and reads like a map of how American casting handled an Iranian American comic across twenty years. The early parts are small and functional: Glenn in 13 Going on 30, Moly in Friday After Next, Mo in The Interpreter, a driver in Paradise, a doctor in The Female Brain. Television is where he gets room. Dr. Bhamba on Better Off Ted is the best of it, played with a deadpan flatness that makes the corporate satire around him land properly. Fawz on Superior Donuts made him a regular on a CBS sitcom in 2017, and Alvin Lucas on Animal Control keeps him in the same territory.
The voice work has grown steadily, with Zin in WondLa and Orum in A Tooth Fairy Tale. Jafar in Descendants, meanwhile, put him inside a live-action Disney franchise that a great many children know by heart. He has also served on the advisory board of the National Iranian American Council, which is worth mentioning because the comedy and the politics have never been entirely separate for him.
Movies (8)
TV (8)
Where to start with Maz Jobrani
The show most likely to send you looking for the rest of his work is Better Off Ted, a corporate satire that did not last nearly long enough, with Dr. Bhamba among the lab staff who get the best material in it.
Superior Donuts is the mainstream sitcom version, broader and more comfortable, and Fawz is his largest regular role. The Interpreter is the serious film credit, small but inside a real thriller. 13 Going on 30 and Friday After Next are early comedy bit parts, fun to spot and nothing more than that. Descendants is the family-franchise entry and the one children will recognise him from, and Animal Control is the current sitcom. His stand-up specials are the real body of work and are not among the credits listed here.