Nick Mohammed was born in Leeds in 1980. From the age of 16 he performed as a magician at weddings. He attended Durham University where he studied geophysics, then began a PhD at Cambridge, where Footlights gave him a route into performing. After roles in Reggie Perrin (2009) and The King is Dead (2010), he took his character Mr Swallow on tour, later developing it for Channel 4.
From 2020-23 Mohammed played Nate Shelley in Ted Lasso, alongside appearances in Taskmaster, Slow Horses, Stath Lets Flats, and the comedy film Deep Cover. His stint on 2025’s Celebrity Traitors made headlines when, having made it to the final, he inadvertently handed victory to Alan Carr. He is touring Show Pony, his stage show, across the UK this year. He lives with his wife and children in South West London.
In his Letter to My Younger Self, Nick Mohammed recalls his fascination with magic, and how his parents were very supportive of his ambitions – even when he gave up his PhD.
When I was a teenager, I was very, very geeky. Which might not come as a surprise. I grew up in Leeds and I was very into magic. Magic was my everything. At that point, I was going to magic conventions, doing competitions, performing at weddings in hotels and restaurants around Leeds. It was all-consuming. I’d got into magic when I was five years old and was a junior member of the Northern Magic Circle. I loved it. And I still love it.
At 16, my heroes were similar to the ones I have now: Torvill and Dean, Michael Crawford, French and Saunders, Peter Kay. All these classic, old-school entertainers. Of course, I loved Paul Daniels but was heading towards Derren Brown. His show Trick of the Mind on Channel 4 made mentalism cool and contemporary. All these books behind me are magic books – I don’t actively work as a magician any more, but I still read magic every day if I can.
I didn’t have any grand ambition. I certainly had no knowledge whatsoever of what it would take to work in this industry. And I don’t think I ever thought I could be a professional magician. I was at a regular comprehensive school, I thought I’d stay on, go to sixth form, then university.
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I was doing a PhD in seismology and geophysics. Geophysicists tend to work for an oil company if they don’t go into academia. But that didn’t feel like me. In comedy, I felt like I found my voice. I was still doing magic, but making people laugh was an even better feeling than making them gasp with a trick.
It was only when I got involved with Cambridge Footlights that I thought, oh, gosh, maybe… because people who’d been in Footlights had gone on to do this as a career. My cohorts became great friends. It was Simon Bird, Joe Thomas, Sarah Solemani, Jonny Sweet. Tom Basden and Tim Key were just before us, a few years earlier was Olivia Colman, David Mitchell and Robert Webb. It’s that weird thing – you find your tribe, then dare to dream. But there were no guarantees. And it has taken two decades, really.
For me to abandon my PhD to do sketches at the Edinburgh Fringe was quite a leap of faith. The PhD was funded research, so it was a real privilege to get. Abandoning that was something people just don’t do at Cambridge – you see it through.
I was lucky. My parents were supportive. But they were also cautious. It’s so different to what I’d been doing and there’s zero guarantee of any job or income. It was nerve-racking for them but I slightly sleep-walked into it. I was blindly optimistic. As soon as I had been bitten by that bug, I felt sure it’d work out somehow.
Any success is founded on a series of failures. They have to be constructive failures. If you’re failing consistently and nothing’s changing, you need to take stock. But you do need to not get the audition or to have a bad gig. I’ve literally played to five people. That is how you grow. At Footlights, we had the opportunity to perform new material every two weeks. It might not work, but you learn from it then write something new. We were also building up a thick skin. Because even overnight successes aren’t overnight successes, they take a few years.
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Nick Mohammed with Jason Sudeikis in Ted Lasso. Image: Apple TV
I feel like my big break was Ted Lasso – and I was 15 years into my career at that point. The only thing I was doing for a living was acting and writing, which to me was already success. But it was the first time I was trusted with a role that was different to anything I’d done before. It took Jason Sudeikis, Joe Kelly, Brendan Hunt and Bill Lawrence, the creative forces behind Ted Lasso, to take a gamble. They told me the journey the character was going to go on and I was captivated by it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I feel I mastered dramatic storytelling in Ted Lasso. I’ve got tons to learn. But because I’d never been to drama school, that was where I really felt what it is to act. And I had the support of people who coached me through it. It was very Ted Lasso, actually, because that is that show all over.
I’d tell my younger self all the stuff I learnt on Ted Lasso. Be curious not judgmental, find your own way, don’t be afraid of failure. And don’t be afraid if it takes a while to find your voice – embrace the fact that it’s a journey.
If you’re a short person of colour… Hollywood’s not crying out for that. I’m being rude, but there are a few barriers. And when I was starting out, that was even more true. I needed confidence and to be surrounded by people who had the same drive to succeed. Ambition can be seen as a bit of an ugly word, but you do need it to succeed in this industry.
Nick Mohammed with wife Becca. Image: Imago / Alamy Stock Photo
My younger self would absolutely love this being my career. I was clearly an attention seeker. You don’t learn magic if you don’t want attention, right? Especially if you’re the geeky kid. I had the performing bug. Now I wake up every day and can’t believe I get to write jokes or act. It’s always thrilling. I’ve loved making people laugh since I was at school but never thought it could transform into a career.
The first time I went to America was for the Emmys when I was nominated. I had never been before, even on holiday. So to go to LA for the first time and see billboards with our faces on and have famous people coming up to us was amazing. I feel so lucky to have had that experience.
My dad’s very left-wing and obviously I’m naturally left-wing because I work in the arts. He is part of the Windrush generation, so although ours wasn’t an overly political household, it was all around us. I’m probably quite naive when it comes to politics, but no one needs another comedian or actor to voice their views. I privately do that and support certain causes. But I don’t think anyone needs me to jump on Instagram and say what everyone’s already thinking.
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I’m a late bloomer when it comes to love and relationships. But I’d tell my younger self not to worry, you’re going to be OK. It’s a rite of passage being 16 – or even in your 20s – and thinking, the clock’s ticking… I met my wife Becca when I was at Durham, so we’ve known each other 20-something years and been married 11 years. We played in the orchestra together, that’s how we met.
It’s mad being a dad. I love having kids, it’s so great.My younger self would be so happy to know he’ll be married and have kids – but it wasn’t something I worried about. I just thought that’s what people did. It’s odd being… am I allowed to say famous? My kids have never known anything different. Ted Lasso came out when our eldest was five, so he’s only known me to be quite successful. He’s got the performing bug too, so I need to explain that there’s 10 years of real slog to get here. It can be weird being in the public eye. Doing the school drop-off during Celebrity Traitors was crazy. After I voted off Joe Marler, we almost told the kids they could have the next day off school. But I’m not sure that’s a valid excuse.
As Mr Swallow in Show Pony
I’d love to be able to thank a lady called Cynthia Neptune. She ran the junior section of the Northern Magic Circle and was a real stalwart. She was incredibly selfless, dedicated her life to magic and especially to children who were into magic. Cynthia lived in Whitley Bay and would drive down to Leeds once a month, pick me up, then drive to Bradford for the meeting. It was incredible. She died prematurely and I never got the opportunity, after becoming a performer for a living, to say thank you.
It’s such a cliché, but if I could relive one day it would be when I heard I’d been nominated for an Emmy. I was going to get my second Covid jab, weirdly at the Science Museum, because it was a hub. So I was on the tube and aware the nominations were coming out. I went underground, then came up the escalator and my phone started pinging and pinging. I honestly couldn’t believe it. Then I went and got a Covid jab. I wanted to tell the person doing the injection, but they wouldn’t have given a shit.
I’m still doing stuff I learned as a kid. On the latest tour, it’s me in character as Mr Swallow but I break down the background of the character and how he originated as an impression of a teacher at Abbey Grange school in Leeds. Which is all true. But there is magic in there too, and it’s set in the mid-’90s with the playlist. So I am communing with my younger self every night. I’d not really thought of that before… Born October 1980. Turned 16 in 1996.
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