Rizwan Manji

Rizwan Manji
Rizwan Manji
	Manji at the Carmel Film Festival in 2016
Born	October 17, 1974 (age 50); Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Alma mater	American Musical and Dramatic Academy
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1997–present
Spouse	Taslim Manji
Children	3

Rizwan Manji (born October 17, 1974) is a Canadian actor. He is known best for his portrayals of Ray Butani on Schitt's Creek, Tick Pickwick on The Magicians, Rajiv Gidwani in the NBC sitcom Outsourced, and Jamil in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) television series Peacemaker (2022–present).^[1]

Early life

Manji was born in Toronto, Ontario, to Indian parents who emigrated from Tanzania.^[2] His family is Ismaili-Muslim of Gujarati Indian descent,^[3] and he has said that his religion is very important to him.^[4] When Manji was in grade one, he and his family moved to Calgary, Alberta, where he was raised.^[5] He graduated from Crescent Heights High School.^[1]^[6]

Manji's parents wanted him to go to university to earn a degree, but he wanted to be an actor.^[7] He attended the University of Alberta, where his sister Rishma was enrolled.^[7] The only class he enjoyed there was drama.^[8] In 1992 Manji enrolled at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York City.^[9]

Career

During the early years of Manji's career, he played small parts in various films and television shows, with recurring roles in Privileged, Better Off Ted and 24.^[1]

From 2010 to 2011, Manji played Rajiv Gidwani on the NBC comedy Outsourced. He initially auditioned for the role of Gupta;^[1] Parvesh Cheena got the part, but the producers cast Manji as the scheming assistant manager Rajiv.^[10]^[11]

Manji played Ray Butani on the CBC comedy Schitt's Creek from 2015 to 2020, for which he was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award.^[12]

He also appeared in seasons 2-5 of The Magicians, a fantasy television series on SyFy.

In 2019, he starred in the NBC comedy Perfect Harmony as Reverend Jax, a missionary who runs a church. The show, which starred Bradley Whitford, was cancelled after one season.

Manji has also appeared in a GEICO commercial as a customer in the checkout aisle who wins the "auction,"^[13]^[14] and in commercials for Kmart, LendingTree, National Car Rental, The UPS Store,^[14] and Beyond Meat.

Manji co-hosts a podcast titled The Brighter Side of News.^[15]

Personal life

Manji lives in Studio City, California, with his wife and three children.^[1]^[16] He has spoken openly about issues facing South Asian and Muslim actors in Hollywood.^[17]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1997	Sue Lost in Manhattan	Newsstand Owner
1998	Too Tired to Die	Young Arab
2001	American Desi	Salim Ali Khan
2001	Queenie in Love	Ahmed
2002	The Guru	Party Waiter
2004	Fillum Star: The Peter Patel Story	Peter Patel
2007	Transformers	Akram
	Charlie Wilson's War	Colonel Mahmood
	God, Inc.	Muslim Publicist	Short film
2009	Karma Calling	Nikhil Shah
2010	Morning Glory	DayBreak Producer
2012	The Dictator	HIV Patient
2012	The Citizen	Mo
2013	The Wolf of Wall Street	Kalil
	Don Jon	Teacher
	Decoding Annie Parker	Assistant
2014	Dr. Cabbie	Vijay
	That Thing with the Cat	Manu
	Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day	Mr. Cellars
2015	Equals	Gilead
2015	Miss India America	Balu Patel
2016	Paterson	Donny
	The Tiger Hunter	Babu Rahman
	Odd Squad: The Movie	Weird Mitch
	The Bounce Back	Daryl
	Arranged	Raj	Short
2017	Wild Honey	Writers' Group Leader
2018	The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot	Maple Leaf
2020	Eat Wheaties!	Bruce Rapp
2020	Midnight Curry	Aman Khoja
2022	Wedding Season	Vijay, Asha's father
2023	The Donor Party	Kahlil
	Shazam! Fury of the Gods	Docent
	Mustache	Hameed
	Journey to Bethlehem	Caspar

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1998	Money Kings	Club Patron	Television film
1999	One Life to Live	Dr. Patel	Episode: #1.7991
2005	Law & Order: Criminal Intent	Santanu Singh	Episode: "Gone"
	NCIS	Dr. Pandy	Episode: "SWAK"
	Damage Control		2 episodes
	Sleeper Cell	Car Salesman	Episode: "Money"
	Late Night with Conan O'Brien	Santa Claus^[5]	Episode: "#13.62"
2006	E-Ring	Officer ISI	Episode: "Five Pillars"
2006	Rescue Me	Haji	Episode: "Retards"
2007	The Knights of Prosperity	Dentist	Episode: "Operation: Fighting Shape"
	The Game	Tubak	Episode: "To Baby... Or Not to Baby"
	Without a Trace	Fasil Mazarin	Episode: "Deep Water"
2008–2009	Privileged	Rami	10 episodes
2008	Mind of Mencia	Gynecologist	Episode: "#4.1"
	Life	Young Doctor	Episode: "Everything... All the Time"
	It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia	Mehar	Episode: "Paddy's Pub: The Worst Bar in Philadelphia"
	Hannah Montana	Ajay	Episode: "You Never Give Me My Money"
2009–2010	Better Off Ted	Rick / Male Office Worker	5 episodes
2009–2010	FlashForward	Maneesh Sandhar	3 episodes
2009	The Suite Life on Deck	Swami Banu Kapatu	Episode: "The Mommy and the Swami"
	Worst Week	Ashok	Episode: "The Epidural"
	Eleventh Hour	Tony	Episode: "Olfactus"
	How I Met Your Mother	Dr. Vikash	Episode: "Double Date"
	Medium	Rental Agent	Episode: "New Terrain"
	Three Rivers	Dr. Drev / Dr. Dev / Male Doctor	3 episodes
2010–2011	Outsourced	Rajiv Gidwani	22 episodes
2010	24	Ahman	3 episodes
	Glee	Dr. Gidwani	Episode: "Laryngitis"
	Hawthorne	Dr. Asheesh Danee	Episode: "Afterglow"
2011	Rizzoli & Isles	Private Investigator	Episode: "Seventeen Ain't So Sweet"
2012–2013	Crash & Bernstein	Dr. Gordon	2 episodes
2012	New Girl	Interviewer	Episode: "Normal"
	Shake It Up	John	Episode: "Whodunit Up?"
	Squad 85	Cubby / Asst. Principal	3 episodes
2013	Touch	Pakistani Interrogator	Episode: "Enemy of My Enemy"
	Wendell & Vinnie	Aziz	2 episodes
	Arrested Development	Animesh / Male Concierge	Episode: "Indian Takers"
	Save Me	Dr. Carroll	Episode: "Heal Thee"
	Anger Management	Indian Father	Episode: "Charlie and the Airport Sext"
	Lucky 7	Ahsan Lashiri	3 episodes
	Bones	Raymond McCants	Episode: "The Mystery in the Meat"
	The Goldbergs	Donald	Episode: "Shopping"
2013–2014	Dog with a Blog	Dr. Young	2 episodes
2014	Mom	Dr. Bellin	2 episodes
	Working the Engels	Edward Fancy-Doodle	Episode: "Jenna vs. Big Pastry Part II"
	Mixology	Ganesh	Episode: "Closing Time"
2015	Young & Hungry	Cashier / Doctor	Episode: "Young & Munchies"
	Backstrom	Dr. Deb Chaman	5 episodes
	The Thundermans	Babu Ouch	Episode: "Phoebe vs Max: The Sequel"
	Minority Report	Dr. Orson	Episode: "Fredi"
2015–2020	Schitt's Creek	Ray Butani	13 episodes
2015–2016	Bella and the Bulldogs	Mr. Matoo	2 episodes
2016	The League	Maitre D	Episode: "The 13 Stages of Grief"
	NCIS: Los Angeles	Anton	Episode: "Matryoshka, Part 1"
	Workaholics	Saul Kingston	Episode: "Night at the Dudeseum"
	Another Period	Prince Apato	Episode: "The Prince and the Pauper"
	Goliath	Dr. Carbo	Episode: "It's Donald"
2017–2020	The Magicians	Tick Pickwick	24 episodes
2017	Mr. Robot	Norm	Recurring role
2017	Mondays	Tour Guide	2 episodes
2018	Rob Riggle’s Ski Master Academy	Todd	8 episodes
2018	A Very Nutty Christmas	Justin	TV movie
2019–2021	Sydney to the Max	Vice Principal Virman	7 episodes
2019–2020	Perfect Harmony	Reverend Jax	Main cast, 13 episodes
2020–2021	Mira, Royal Detective	Mr. Khan / Ajhay Sharma (voice)	8 episodes
2020–2021	American Dad!	Knight / Towel Swan (voice)	2 episodes
2021	Atypical	Vice Principal Patrick	3 episodes
2022	Peacemaker	Jamil	Recurring role
	Roar	Third Husband (Raoul)	Episode: "The Woman Who Returned Her Husband"
	Zarqa	Yusuf	3 episodes
	Family Guy	Giraffe (voice)	Episode: "Happy Holo-ween"
	Beauty and the Beast: A 30th Celebration	Le Fou	Live TV special

Video games

Year	Title	Role
2007	Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties	Akbar

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e "Outsourced: Rajiv played by Rizwan Manji". NBC Universal. Archived from the original on October 27, 2010. Retrieved October 15, 2010.
^ Strachan, Alex (May 12, 2011). "It's end of the season for five television programs". The Windsor Star (Windsor, Ontario). p. C8.
^ "Outsourcing stereotypes". Retrieved January 23, 2015.
^ Rydhan, Irfan. "Rizwan Manji: Taking Jobs From White America". ILLUME. Archived from the original on December 26, 2010. Retrieved December 13, 2010.
^ ^a ^b Ryan, Andrew (October 6, 2010). "Outsourced, in this case, is 'a great honour'". The Globe and Mail (Toronto). p. R4.
^ "Indo-Canadian Actor to Star in 'The Wolf of Wall Street'". News India-Times (New York). December 20, 2013. p. 23.
^ ^a ^b Hall, Jamie (September 30, 2010). "Actor finds way in with Outsourced; Sitcom set in Indian firm 'a really big deal' for ex-U of A student". Edmonton Journal. p. D1.
^ Volmers, Eric (September 30, 2010). "Sitcom laughs outsourced to Calgary actor; Rizwan Manji shows funny side in new series". Calgary Herald. p. E4.
^ ""Outsourced" not outdone — Ismaili actor makes headway in Hollywood". TheIsmaili.org. December 21, 2010. Retrieved December 12, 2010.
^ ""People think Rajiv Gidwani is a jackass!" – Rizwan Manji » Bollywood Spice | Bollywood News". Archived from the original on December 12, 2010. Retrieved December 13, 2010.
^ Brioux, Bill (November 27, 2010). "Landing a big job on Outsources: The new show is the latest in a trend that reflects the growing global reach of the South Asian community". Toronto Star. p. SW4.
^ "CBC and Little Mosque on the Prairie's Zarqa Nawaz reunite for Zarqa | TV, eh?". www.tv-eh.com. Retrieved November 6, 2021.
^ Hanson-Firestone, Dana, "10 Things You Didn’t Know About Rizwan Manji," tvovermind.com, November 2019 Retrieved April 7, 2020
^ ^a ^b ispot.tv Manji TV Commercials Ads Retrieved April 7, 2020
^ "Host The Brighter Side Of News". Rukus Avenue Radio. Retrieved December 27, 2022.
^ "Rizwan Manji Welcomes Son Aariq". People. Retrieved September 26, 2020.
^ "Rizwan Manji: It wasn't a surprise that people loved Schitt's Creek. It was a surprise that it took so long for people to find it!". Hindustan Times. November 21, 2020. Retrieved November 6, 2021.