Kayvan Novak

Kayvan Novak (Persian: کیوان نواک‎; born 23 November 1978) is a British actor, voice actor, and comedian.[1][2] He is best known for co-creating and starring in the comedy series Fonejacker from 2006 to 2008 with a one-off in 2012 (for which he won the BAFTA Television Award for Best Comedy (Programme or Series) in 2008).

Kayvan Novak
Novak in 2020
Born	(1978-11-23) 23 November 1978 London, England
Medium	Television, film
Years active	2002–present
Genres	Character comedy, satire, sketch comedy
Subject(s)	Practical jokes
Partner(s)	Talitha Stone

He is also known for his role as Waj in the 2010 comedy film Four Lions and the vampire "Nandor the Relentless" in the critically acclaimed mockumentary series What We Do in the Shadows.

Early life

Novak was born in London to Iranian parents.[3] He was privately educated at Highgate School and the Fine Arts College in Hampstead, before attending the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art.[4] In one of his early Facejacker episodes, he had revisited his former school of Fine Arts College, acting as Brian Badonde.

Career

Novak initially appeared on various British shows such as Family Affairs, Holby City, and Spooks. In 2005, he and Ed Tracy created Fonejacker, a prank call show as part of Channel 4's Comedy Lab strand.[5] After the pilot, he was given a Christmas special and a six-part series, which began airing on 5 July 2007 on E4 and 7 September 2007 on Channel 4. In November 2009, he appeared on the Channel 4 show The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret, playing a bomb disposal officer. In April 2010, Novak began appearing in a spin-off of Fonejacker called Facejacker, in which he adopted various disguises, including several characters heard in Fonejacker. Novak announced on BBC Radio 1 in May 2012 that the character Terry Tibbs, a mainstay of both shows, would be getting a spin-off chat show which aired in August 2012.[6] Novak played Simon in the Channel 4 sitcom pilot Bad Sugar.[2]

Novak filmed a scene for This Is England '86 which was cut from the final broadcast, but appears in the DVD extras. He was also one of the main characters in the television show Sirens, which began on 27 June 2011 on Channel 4 in the UK. Novak also featured in two episodes of Phone Shop, the first in Series 1, entitled "The First Temptation of Chris", and the second in Series 2, entitled "Revenge of the Razz". He played area manager Razz Prince. In the last series of BBC 2's Rev., he played the local Imam Yussef Hasan, a local religious rival against the title character.[7] In addition to acting, Novak has made appearances as himself on shows Soccer AM, 8 out of 10 Cats, Celebrity Big Brother's Little Brother, and Never Mind the Buzzcocks.

Novak appeared as an intelligence officer in the Academy Award-winning film Syriana. In 2008, he appeared in micro-budget B-movie The Blue Tower.[8] He also appeared in the 2010 comedy Four Lions, in which he played the dim-witted Waj, a role for which he won the award for Best Comedy Performance in a British Film at the 2010 British Comedy Awards, beating fellow actor Nigel Lindsay for the same award in the same film.[9] Novak plans to create a film based on the Fonejacker and Facejacker characters, and in 2011 was reported to be in talks with Film4 and Hat Trick Productions.[6] In November 2012, Novak told the Metro newspaper that he hoped that such a film would be released in 2014.[10]

Novak appeared as Alok in the first series of BBC Radio 4 comedy Fags, Mags and Bags. He has provided voice work for three video games: Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Perfect Dark Zero, and Kameo. He also voiced various characters in the ITV spoof sketch show Headcases, and in the 2012 Channel 4 animated series Full English. He lent his vocals to British band Beady Eye's 2013 song "Flick of the Finger".[11]

In 2013, he appeared as Effy Stonem's boss in the Skins episode "Skins Fire". He voiced a Cyberman head called Handles in the Doctor Who 2013 Christmas special "The Time of the Doctor".[12] He had a starring role in the last episode of the first series of Uncle as Mo, the boss of a fictional record label.[13] In 2014, he played Paul in the second episode ("A Quiet Night In") of Inside No. 9.[14] Also in 2014, he appeared in Episode 1, Series 3 of Rev. as the Imam, Yussef Hasan.

Since 2015, he has voiced the character of Brains in the revived ITV series Thunderbirds Are Go.[15] In 2015 he featured in the sitcom Asylum as "Rafael".[16] In May 2015 he appeared in a new comedy series called SunTrap on BBC1. In May 2017, Novak appeared in Channel 4's Britain Today, Tonight.[17][18]

In 2019, Novak was cast as the vampire Nandor The Relentless on the critically acclaimed mockumentary comedy horror television series What We Do In The Shadows. The show is based on the 2014 What We Do in the Shadows film of the same name.

Novak speaks fluent Persian, as seen on the second episode of Season 2 of What We Do in the Shadows "Ghosts".

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2005	Syriana	Arash
2010	A Turtle's Tale: Sammy's Adventures	Fluffy (voice)
	Four Lions	Waj
2014	Cuban Fury	Bejan
	Captcha	Clarence	Short film
	The Last Sparks of Sundown	Seven
	Paddington	Grant the Animal Supplier
2016	Prevenge	Tom
2018	Early Man	Dino / Jurgend (voice)
2019	The Day Shall Come	Reza
2019	Men in Black: International	Vungus/Nasr/Bassam

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2002	The American Embassy	Ahmed Rallah	Episode: "China Cup"
	Judge John Deed	Ali Abdul Moncheri	Episode: "Political Expediency"
	Family Affairs	Amir Sadati	1 episode
2003	Trial & Retribution	Craig Board	2 episodes
2004	Holby City	Reza Abbassi	5 episodes
	Spooks	Sevilin Ozal	1 episode (uncredited)
	A Line in the Sand	Vahid	TV movie
	She's Gone	Arto Fazouk	TV movie
2005	Murphy's Law	Masud	Episode: Boy's Night Out
	The Government Inspector	Qasim Hamdani	TV movie
2006	Comedy Lab	Fonejacker	1 episode (voice)
2007	Be More Ethnic	Ranjit Pradesh	TV movie
2007–2008	Fonejacker	The Fonejacker	Main cast; 13 episodes BAFTA Television Award for Best Comedy (Programme or Series) in 2008
2008	Headcases	Various roles	1 episode (voice)
2008	The Big Fat Quiz of the Year	The Fonejacker
2009	Comedy Showcase	Bomb Disposal Officer	1 episode
2010	The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret	Bomb Disposal Officer	Episode: "In Which Claims Are Made and a Journey Ensues"
	Channel 4's Comedy Gala	Terry Tibbs
2010–2011	PhoneShop	Razz Prince	2 episodes
2010–2012	Facejacker	Terry Tibbs/ various characters	Main cast; 7 episodes
2011	Sirens	Rachid Mansaur	Main cast; 6 episodes
2012	Hacks	Rav	TV movie
	Verry Terry	Terry Tibbs (Host)	TV movie
	Bad Sugar	Simon	TV movie
	Full English	Dusty Johnson/Jason Johnson	Main cast; 2 episodes
2013	10 O'Clock Live	Pat Putterson	3 episodes
	Skins	Jake Abbasi	Series 7, episodes 1–2, "Fire"
	Doctor Who	Handles	Episode: "The Time of the Doctor"
	Homeboys	Sergio	TV movie
2014	Inside No. 9	Paul	Episode: "A Quiet Night In"
	Uncle	Mo	Episode: "Nephew"
	Rev.	Yussef Hasan	1 episode
	Puppy Love	Phil Evans	1 episode
	Walter	DS Mike Minorsky	TV movie
2015–2020	Thunderbirds Are Go	Brains Ned Tedford	Main cast; 21 episodes
2015–present	Danger Mouse	Dr. Loo-cifer Isambard King Kong Brunel	Recurring cast
2015	Asylum	Rafael & Creator	3 episodes
	SunTrap	Woody	6 episodes
	Top Coppers	Gerard Cliché	1 episode
2016	Counterfeit Cat	Betty, Throckmorton, various characters
2017	Quacks	Kapoor	Episode: "The Mesmerist"
2017–present	Britain Today, Tonight	Various characters
2019–present	What We Do in the Shadows	Nandor	Main cast
2019	A Christmas Carol	Ali Baba	Miniseries
2020	Robot Chicken	King Arthur, Albus Dumbledore (voice)	Episode: "Max Caenen in: Why Would He Know If His Mother's A Size Queen"

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2005	Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit	Lord Victor Quartermaine
2005	Kameo	Additional Voice Talent
2005	Perfect Dark Zero	Additional Voice Talent
2008	Haze	Additional Voice Talent

References

1. Pool, Hannah (23 October 2008). "Question time". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 February 2015. I'm Iranian, which means I feel that I have more right to take off other races and religions, being an "ethnic" myself ... Does being first-generation British give you a particular insight? Yes. It gives you a heightened sensitivity. I was born in London. In a lot of ways I'm English, but I have this Iranianness
2. Kadivar, Darius Syriana breaks Iranian stereotypes Archived 26 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine, Persian Mirror. Retrieved 3 August 2007.
3. "Cuban Fury: why Kayvan Novak isn't playing the 'foreign bad guy' any more". The Guardian. 13 February 2014. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
4. "kayvannovak.co.tv". kayvan-novak.co.tv. Archived from the original on 1 July 2015. Retrieved 28 January 2014.
5. Comedy Lab, Channel 4. Retrieved 3 August 2007.
6. International Business Times. Retrieved 2 July 2011.
7. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1588221/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast
8. last accessed 1 December 2012.
9. "British Comedy Awards 2010". The BCA. Retrieved 28 January 2011.
10. metrowebukmetro (8 November 2012). "'Exciting' Facejacker movie in the pipeline, reveals star Kayvan Novak". Metro. UK. Retrieved 28 January 2014.
11. "Beady Eye Interview". Shortlist.com. Retrieved 28 January 2014.
12. "BBC One – Doctor Who, The Time of the Doctor". BBC. Retrieved 28 January 2014.
13. "Episode 1.6 – Nephew". British Comedy Guide. Retrieved 11 February 2014.
14. "Episode 1.2 – A Quiet Night In". British Comedy Guide. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
15. John Plunkett (30 September 2013). "Thunderbirds are Go! blends old and new for return of classic series". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 January 2014.
16. Newal, Sally (9 February 2015). "Asylum, BBC4 – TV review". Retrieved 21 February 2015.
17. "Kayvan Novak to star in new entertainment series". 4 November 2015. Retrieved 2 May 2017.
18. "Britain Today, Tonight". 2 May 2017. Retrieved 2 May 2017.

External links

• Kayvan Novak on IMDb
• Kayvan Novak on Twitter