Coming out wasn’t British-Pakistani YouTube wunderkind Mawaan Rizwan’s biggest fear. Nor was coming out as a multi-hyphenate comedian with actorly and musical tendencies.
“You know what, the most stressful thing that really tipped my mum over the edge was telling her that I eat bacon,” the whacky wunderkind, Taskmaster contestant and Maisie Williams’ co-lead says with a flash of his trademark goofy smile.
“You only know your parents in their most boring years,” Mawaan notes. “I think queer kids are the biggest gift because it challenges their own shit. Once your kid comes out as queer, or an artist for that matter, then it can become an invitation to share some of the truths.”
He says his parents have. “It’s been hard, but over time, they’ve shared some beautifully nuanced and complex stories from their lives that I have now mined for comedy and completely monetised.”
Shahnaz, his beloved mum, appears alongside Mawaan in his brilliantly bonkers debut TV comedy series, Juice, which also features his younger brother Nabhaan. She raised the boys and their seven siblings in Ilford in London’s East End after the family emigrated from Lahore when Mawaan was three, having given up a nascent career in Pakistan’s movie business when she was 13.
“Because it wasn’t, quote, unquote, a respectable thing for a woman to do,” Mawaan says. “She wanted to migrate to England to give her kids a better life and went through so much difficulty and financial struggle. And then, aged 17, her son decides to make stupid YouTube sketches and put her in them, because she was inherently funny and he had no other actors around.”
Farida (Shahnaz Rizwan) and Jamma (Mawaan Rizwan). Credit: Liam Daniel / Various Artists Limited
In classic ‘circle of life’ stuff, Shahnaz was spotted in Mawaan’s online skits by the creative team behind Indian soap opera Yeh Hai Mohabbatein (This is love), with . “And then she becomes a household name in Asia,” he deadpans of her 600-episode-plus run on the show.
Now it’s his turn (and hers again). He stresses that Juice, adapted for the BBC from Mawaan’s Edinburgh Fringe show of the same name, is fiction. But it draws deep on the family’s shared experiences, including a monochrome episode inspired by his mum’s aborted movie stardom.
He plays Jamma, a frustrated creative type drifting along in a soul-sapping marketing gig, which his brother Isaac (Nabhaan) muscles in on despite branding the company’s work as “colonialism”. Jamma has major commitment issues and has moved his stuff, but not himself, into the home of his older and more grounded professional therapist boyfriend, Guy (Years and Years star Russell Tovey). As if to highlight Jamma’s inability to get serious, the gloriously oddball show indulges in Michel Gondry-like magical realist flourishes, including musical interludes, doona-tunnels that connect one scene to the next, a butt dance (no stunt double was deployed) and a confetti cannon orgasm.
Jamma (Mawaan Rizwan) and Guy (Russell Tovey) in 'Juice'. Credit: Liam Daniel / Various Artists Limited
“I always knew I wanted to make a visually adventurous show with no special effects, all in-camera things that were built and actors could actually physically move through and play with, but the crazier those ideas got, the more important it was that I got actors who could do real emotion,” Mawaan says. “Russell has been an absolute dream because he comes from such a school of truthfulness and inherently has comedy bones, so you just really buy it whenever he says or does anything on screen. And he’s such a delight to work with.”
As were the family, who had three trailers next to each other. “We turned up on that first day on set and had teary eyes,” Mawaan says. “it was such a weird combination of being really grateful and amazed that we’ve got here, but also just relief. We worked really hard for this and we’re ready. Let’s do it with all our authentic selves.”
Nabhaan has appeared in earnest endeavours, including dystopian drama series Station Eleven and Sam Mendes’ immersive war film 1917, but started out in Mawaan’s zany YouTube videos. “My brother has always been the funny one in the family,” Mawaan says. “He was this goofy little kid who would always do all these voices and characters, and he was the reason, really, I thought, ‘Oh, I want to direct comedy and I’m going to put you in these videos and then we’re going to be very famous’. And then he got too cool for it and I had to start putting myself in them. But he’s the reason I’m doing comedy, because my early funny bones were definitely in cahoots with him.”
Jamma (Mawaan Rizwan) and Isaac (Nabhann Rizwan) in 'Juice'. Credit: Liam Daniel / Various Artists Limited
Mawaan says his mum, in particular, gave so much to Juice, which shows. A magnetic screen presence who can flip from witheringly caustic wit to boundlessly loving in a heartbeat, Shahnaz gleams as his mum, Farida, who’s frustrated by his lack of seriousness, but also runs an acting school in which she coaches pre-schoolers to tackle the musical War Horse.
“We had a weirdly contradictory childhood,” he says. “We definitely had this immigrant pressure of ‘Do not let my sacrifice go to waste, okay, you need to have amazing grades and be the best at school’. And on the other side, my mum was such a closet artist who would do stage plays and all these projects, as well as having three jobs and paying the legal battle for her immigration status. Whether she knows it or not, she instilled that artistic way of seeing the world in us.”
Jamma (Mawaan Rizwan). Credit: Various Artists Limited
These overlapping identities benefitted them all. “As a family, we have an ADHD sense of wanting to do more and more, with creativity as a coping mechanism, and it’s such a big strength,” he says. “You want to explore all the avenues where you can express yourself. For a lot of people coming from certain identities or backgrounds, they get put in a very, very limiting, unimaginative box. And so as soon as I put out a show, I want to do the next thing that’s not predictable.”
This is why Mawaan’s career encompasses both presenting documentary How Gay Is Pakistan?, joining the writing room on Sex Education, appearing on stage at Glastonbury with his pop rock band and now the constant laugh-squeezing riot that is Juice. “I’m just having a lot of fun being able to express myself in so many different mediums and getting away with it,” he says. “And actually that will keep you interested, as an audience, and keep me interested as an artist.”
You can catch all six episodes of Juice at SBS on Demand now.
Stream free On Demand
Juice
series • sitcom
MA15+
series • sitcom
MA15+
Also see Mawaan Rizwan in Two Weeks To Live, streaming at SBS On Demand:
Stream free On Demand
Two Weeks To Live
series • Comedy drama
M
series • Comedy drama
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