Mawaan Rizwan

(He/Him)

Mawaan’s breakthrough project is scripted television series Juice.

Mawaan Rizwan is possibly the most familiar name in this year’s BAFTA Breakthrough cohort, because he’s been on our screens, off and on, for more than a decade. As a performer, his credits include Murdered by My Father (2016), Two Weeks to Live and Taskmaster (2020). But, it wasn’t until Juice (2023) – the BAFTA-winning hit comedy series that Mawaan wrote, executive produced and played the central character – that he was given the opportunity to create something that felt deeply personal, while also being full of heart, inclusive surreal and very funny.

Juice was also a family affair, with Mawaan starring alongside his mother, Shahnaz, and brother, Nabhaan, who he calls “annoyingly talented”. It was his mother who perhaps provided the initial spark to Mawaan’s journey: a child star in her homeland of Pakistan, Shahnaz put on weekend community plays after moving to the UK, casting family members and the immigrants she taught English to in her daily job, providing Mawaan with access to an amazing array of people, rife for reimagining in his own comedy years later.

In their own words…

“You can push yourself so much further and challenge yourself so much more when you work with people who come from different backgrounds than you. Artists mixing is what makes good art. You don’t make art in a void… I wanted to make something that wasn’t onscreen, that was reflective of my weird references and would make people sit up. I feel like I really got to do that. To be able to make a show like Juice on my own terms and in the way that I wanted to make it was a miracle.”