Bilal Zafar is a Stand up Comedian, Actor and Writer from and based in London.
Stand up
He was nominated for Best Newcomer at the Edinburgh Fringe 2016 and won the Hackney Empire New Act Award (NATYS) in the same year. He has taken 3 solo shows to Edinburgh and toured them around the UK including runs at London’s Soho Theatre. Bilal’s solo shows are;
CAKES: A story about a time Bilal’s twitter handle @Zafarcakes was confused for a ‘Muslim only bakery’ by angry people on twitter and he went along with it to see what happens.
BISCUIT: Bilal’s experience of trying to find in the modern world of Muslim (and non Muslim, God forgive him) dating apps in comparison to how his parents met through an ‘arranged marriage’ (Which isn’t the same as a forced marriage)
LOVEBOTS: A show about social experiment in which Bilal teamed up with Rob Manuel to create twitter bots to fight the bad Russian bots by spreading Love rather than hate and misinformation.
And Bilal is working on a brand new show for Edinburgh 2022 called CARE all about his experience of working in a care home for a year as a 21 year old. Exploring stuff like how we treat our elderly, employment in the UK, dementia, dignity etc.
WRITING
As a writer, Bilal created and performed a Stand up Special for BBC radio 4, is one of the lead writers on Sketchtopia (A sketch show also on BBC Radio 4), written articles for the Guardian and the Independent and will hopefully be getting some script stuff commissioned one day.
ACTING
Although Bilal hasn’t received and formal acting training, he has so far had roles in sitcoms Catastrophe (Channel 4) and Sick of it (Sky 1) . He also managed to get a role in the Feature Film Last Christmas alongside Emma Thompson, Emilia Clarke and Henry Golding, Directed by Paul Feig.
twitch
Bilal began streaming on twitch when the 2020 pandemic meant that all of his live work, including the Edinburgh Fringe disappeared.
He currently streams an improvised, interactive comedy show ‘Hot Peppsy Football manager’ in which he plays an unhinged English football manager, ‘the Acting School’ of excellence’ - a live version of his web series and ‘Writing The Coder’ in which he writes a feature film script with the help of his audience. This can all be found at twitch.tv/zafarcakes
“Bilal Zafar isn’t using Twitch like anyone else, he’s turning it into something very new” IGN
“Witty and absorbing…highly entertaining. I look forward to whatever Zafar cooks up next”
Dominic Maxwell, The Times
“Delivers big laughs” Brian Logan, The Guardian
"Fascinating and hilarious in equal measure"
Ian Jones, i-D
"A natural storyteller with a very likeable stage presence" ★★★★★ Patrick Dalziel, Shortcom
“Zafar really delivers on the absurdity of an escalating social media farce running in parallel with growing prejudice and tensions, joyously exposing the stupidity on all sides”
★★★★
Ben Venables, The Skinny
“Endearing, relaxed and naturally funny…hilarious”
★★★★
Emily Phillips, EdFest Mag
2016 EDINBURGH COMEDY AWARDS - BEST NEWCOMER: NOMINEE
WINNER - New act of the year 2016
(previously Hackney Empire new act of the year)
Runner Up - Leicester Square Theatre New Comedian of the year 2015
Finalist - great Yorkshire Fringe New Comedian of the year 2015