Nadia Manzoor

Nadia Manzoor is a British writer, performer, and producer.[1] She is best known for her autobiographical solo show Burq Off! and for her web series Shugs & Fats.

Nadia Manzoor, in 2017.

Early life

Born and raised in Hertfordshire, England to Pakistani parents, she attended St. Albans High School for Girls and Manchester University.[2] She received a Masters in Social Work from Boston University where she began developing an interest in art as activism.[3]

Career

Manzoor moved to New York City in 2011 and began taking improvisation classes with Groundlings based improv school Improvolution and teaching performing arts curriculum to marginalized teens with the Hetrick-Martin Institute.[4] [5]

Burq Off!

In December 2013, Manzoor's autobiographical solo show Burq Off! premiered in New York City.[6] Manzoor is the writer and performer of the show, which sold out its first run and went on tour to sold out audiences in LA, San Francisco, London, Toronto, Vancouver, and Seoul.[7][8][9][10][11] Burq Off! is a one woman comedy about growing up in a conservative Muslim home in London, and explores themes of sex, religion, culture, truth and family. In it, Manzoor portrays over twenty-one characters.[12] She has spoken about the show in interviews with Christiane Amanpour, Deepak Chopra, and Jane Garvey among others.[13][14][15]

Shugs & Fats

Manzoor is the creator of comedy web-series Shugs & Fats with comedian Radhika Vaz. Shugs & Fats is a buddy comedy about two hijabis exploring their freedom as recent immigrants to Brooklyn.[16] Manzoor and Vaz were named among the 25 New Faces in Independent Film in 2016 by Filmmaker Magazine.[17] Shugs & Fats has had screenings at Tribeca Film Festival, Miami Film Festival, and Tacoma Film Festival.[18][19][20]

The series won a Gotham Award in 2015 and is currently in development with Jill Soloway and Amazon Studios.[21][22]

Personal life

She is married to actor Conrad Caton whom she met in an acting class. [23]

References
  1. "HuffPost: Nadia Manzoor". HuffPost.
  2. "Nadia Manzoor: From Art to Activism and Beyond".
  3. "Nadia P. Manzoor's BURQ OFF! Featured on Broadway World".
  4. "About Nadia Manzoor's Burq Off! KO Festival of Performance". 3 June 2015.
  5. ""SPOTLIGHT ON" WRITER/PERFORMER NADIA PARVEZ MANZOOR". 29 January 2014.
  6. "CNN talks to Nadia Manzoor about her one woman play that charts her journey as a British-Pakistani Muslim". CNN. 18 December 2013.
  7. "BURQ OFF to Play Los Angeles & San Francisco in July".
  8. "Burq Off! Theatre in London". September 2014.
  9. "Small World Music: Burq Off! 2 shows added by popular demand!". 8 December 2014.
  10. "Nadia Manzoor defines herself in Burq Off!".
  11. "ST-BOMB: Theater in Seoul". November 2016.
  12. Courage, Moral (24 March 2014). "Want This Woman to Lie About Herself? You Can Just Burq Off!". The Daily Beast.
  13. "Nadia P Manzoor's interview with Christiane Amanpour on CNN International". YouTube.
  14. "Nadia Manzoor & Deepak Chopra - One World".
  15. "BBC Woman's Hour".
  16. ""Remade in America: Shugs & Fats Finds the Humor in the Immigrant Experience"". MTV.
  17. "'Filmmaker' Reveals 25 New Faces of Independent Film 2016: 'American Honey' Star Sasha Lane & More". 27 July 2016.
  18. "A Web Comedy Series Is 'Walking The Line Between Hipsters And Hijabis'". NPR.
  19. "Miami Film Festival".
  20. "25 New Faces of Film come to Tacoma Film Festival with some hot topics".
  21. Buckley, Cara (December 2015). "At the Gothams, 'Spotlight' and Spontaneity Win the Night". The New York Times.
  22. "Jill Soloway Re-Ups Overall Deal With Amazon Studios". 8 May 2017.
  23. "Why old school dating will make you happier than trolling Tinder". 22 March 2015.
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