Bilal Zafar (comedian)

Zafar began performing stand-up comedy in his final year of university in 2013 and is best known for performing material about racism and islamophobia. He cites Simon Amstell and Chris Morris as influences.^[5]

In 2015, Zafar was runner-up in the New Comedian of the Year competition run by Leicester Square Theatre.^[8][9] The following year he won first prize at the NATYS Awards in London at the same venue.^[10][11]

Described as a "wry storyteller",^[10] Zafar appeared on the BBC Asian Network's Comedy Show in 2016 and 2017.^[12] He has also appeared on BBC Radio Four's Loose Ends^[13] and presented one of the station's Stand-Up Specials.^[14]

Since 2020 Zafar has attracted a small regular audience and gained the status of Partner for his channel on live-streaming platform Twitch, where he portrays the manager of a football team within the videogame Pro Evolution Soccer 5. The manager character frequently engages his audience of “assistant managers” whose participation in the stream’s chat room and enthusiasm for in-jokes Zafar encourages.^[15]

• Official website
• Bilal Zafar at IMDb