Mawaan Rizwan

Mawaan Rizwan (born 18 August 1992) is a Pakistani-born British actor and comedian who began his career as a YouTuber. Early life Rizwan was born in Lahore, Pakistan; his mother, Shahnaz, was one of nine siblings and had starred in a number of black and white Pakistani films. As his mother desired a better life for Mawaan and his sister, they emigrated to London in 1994. Six years later, at the age of eight, Rizwan and his family were threatened with deportation, but were granted indefinite leave to remain after legal battles and protests for the family's immigration rights. Career Rizwan started making YouTube videos at the age of 16. The attention he received for these resulted in him gaining roles on various television and streaming programming. In 2013 he began starring in the BAFTA award nominated series DNN: Definitely Not Newsround, a spoof news comedy series for children. In 2015 he starred in Disney XD UK series Mega Awesome Super Hacks alongside Oli White and Jimmy Hill. In 2015, Rizwan travelled to Pakistan, his country of birth, to film the documentary How Gay Is Pakistan? which explores the issues faced by other LGBTQ Muslims living under Islamic law that deems homosexuality illegal. The documentary was televised internationally, including on ABC2 in Australia, CBC in Canada and in various markets via Amazon Prime Video.