Making it to Hollywood is like winning a super-duper jackpot. While we are obsessing about our people working for Bollywood, there are Pakistanis who have made us really proud in Hollywood with their talent.
Here’s a list of Pakistanis who made us proud in Hollywood:
1. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
The Pakistani musical maestro composed music for Hollywood movies like ‘Last Temptation of Christ‘, ‘Bone Collector’, ‘Any Given Sunday’ and ‘Dead Man Walking’.
2. Atif Aslam
The singing icon of Pakistan, who is making it big in Bollywood, has also sung three songs in the American independent film ‘Man Push Cart‘ and a song in the movie ‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist‘.
3. Ajmal Zaheer Ahmed
He is the executive producer of the movie ‘Jinn‘ and has written and directed ‘Alliance‘, ‘It’s a Mismatch‘ and ‘Jinn‘.
4. Ayad Akhtar
The writer and actor is the proud recipient of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. He has written plays for the stage including ‘Disgraced‘, ‘The Invisible Hand‘ and ‘The Who and The What‘. He made his debut as a novelist with ‘American Dervesh‘ in 2012.
5. Faran Haroon Tahir
Born into an acting family, Tahir has played roles in some high profile movies like; ‘The Jungle Book‘, ‘Picture Perfect‘, ‘A Price Above Rubies‘, ‘Anywhere But Here‘, ‘ABCD‘, ‘A Town Without Pity‘, ‘Manticore‘, ‘Charlie Wilson’s War‘, ‘Iron Man‘, ‘Star Trek‘, ‘Ashes‘, ‘Elysium‘, ‘Torn‘, ‘Escape Plan‘, ‘Mr. Jones‘ and most recently ‘Jinn‘.
6. Kamran Pasha
The Karachi-born popular screenwriter, director and novelist has written and produced the NBC series ‘Kings‘. Some of his other works include NBC’s ‘Bionic Woman‘, ‘The CW’s Nikita‘, ‘Disney’s Tron: Uprising and Sleeper Cell‘ – nominated for the Golden Globe and Emmy Awards in Best Miniseries category in 2005 and 2006.
7. Syma Chowdhry
The news reporter in Philadelphia at KYW-TV, initially appeared on MTV’s ‘Rachael Ray Show‘ and ‘Law & Order‘. She got her big break in 2011 by becoming a news anchor at CBS for the ‘First Forecast Mornings‘ show in Detroit station. She has also participated in a number of beauty pageants and was the 1st runner up in the Miss Pennsylvania USA pageant.
8. Meesha Shafi
The famous model and Coke-Studio singer entered Hollywood with her role in ‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist‘.
9. Dilshad Vadsaria
This Karachi-born actor caught attention by her role in ABC Family TV show ‘Greek‘. She also made appearances in in ‘NCIS‘, ‘Revenge‘, ‘NCIS: Los Angeles‘ and ‘Bones‘ along with the movie ‘30 seconds or less‘.
10. Iqbal Theba
The actor is known as Principal Figgins in Fox series ‘Glee‘. He has appeared in 58 episodes throughout the six seasons. He rose to fame after appearing in ‘Friends‘ and ‘Nip/Tuck‘. He was featured in other famous shows including, The ‘George Carlin Show‘, ‘Married With Children‘, ‘ER‘, ‘Two And A Half Men‘, ‘Seinfeld‘ and ‘Everybody Loves Raymond‘. He was also seen in ‘Transformers: Dark of the Moon‘.
11. Mir Zafar Ali
If you have seen ‘The Golden Compass‘, ‘Spiderman 3‘, ‘X Men: First Class‘ and ‘Life of Pi‘, you should feel proud to know that the visual effects were created by none other than a Pakistani specialist. The Oscar-winning visual effects specialist has also received an Academy Award in Best Visual Effects category for ‘Frozen‘ – making it a first for the Walt Disney Animation Studios. Some of his other works include ‘The Day After Tomorrow‘, ‘The Incredible Hulk‘ and ‘The Mummy‘.
12. Novaira Masood
The credit of portraying Angelina Jolie as the picture-perfect villain in ‘Malificent‘ goes to none other than software engineer Novaira. She worked with her team to create inimitable special effects. She has also worked on other Hollywood films such as ‘A Christmas Carol‘, ‘Mars needs Moms‘, ‘Thor‘, ‘Transformers 3‘ and ‘Jack the Giant Slayer‘.
13. Gabe Grey
Syed Fuad Ahmed, now known as Gabe Grey, was born in Karachi. The 32-year-old actor was seen in ‘The Haircut‘, ‘One Last Shot‘ and ‘Bomb Girls: Facing the Enemy‘. He has also attended the Model and Talent Search Canada in 2005. He will soon be seen in Deepa Mehta’s directorial ‘Beeba Boys‘ alongside Ali Kazmi.
14. Umar Khan
Umar got his big break by playing the lead role of Robert Martinez in ‘Veracious Perception‘. He was also seen in the films ‘Miami Heat‘, ‘The Hitman‘, ‘The Test‘, ‘Deliver Us From Evil‘, ‘Captain America: Civil War‘, ‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay‘ and ‘District Voices‘. The Lahore-born actor also possesses martial arts skills.
15. Adnan Siddique
The TV heartthrob played a role alongside Angelina Jolie and Irfan Khan in the 2007 film ‘A Mighty Heart’.
16. Sadia Shephard
The New York City-based filmmaker and author has written ‘The Girl from Foreign: A Search for Shipwrecked Ancestors‘ and ‘Lost Loves‘. She has also produced the documentary ‘The September Issue‘ that featured the making of ‘Vogue‘. It has won the Excellence in Cinematography Award at Sundance Film Festival in 2009.
17. Mahnoor Baloch
This ageless Pakistani beauty made her Hollywood screen debut alongside Faran Tahir in the movie, ‘Torn’.
18. Sameer Asad Gardezi
The screenwriter has written for some of the popular television series such as ‘Aliens in America‘, ‘Mr. Sunshine‘, ‘Outsourced‘, ‘Save Us‘, ‘Then the Whales‘ and Emmy Award-winning series ‘Modern Family‘. He has also won an award for his short film ‘Equal Opportunity‘. Sameer is currently working on Fox’s ‘Goodwin Games‘.
19. Kumail Nanjiani
This Pakistani-American has starred on the TNT series ‘Franklin & Bash‘ and co-hosts the show ‘The Meltdown with Jonah and Kumail‘. Nanjiani is also a regular on HBO’s ‘Silicon Valley‘. On top of his television and film work, he hosts two podcasts: ‘The Indoor Kids‘ and ‘The X-Files Files‘.
20. Kamran Rashid Khan
The Discovery Channel featured this hip hop artist from Detroit on a documentary called ‘The Real 8 Mile‘.
21. Strings
This Pakistani band made it to ‘Spiderman 2‘ with their song Najanay Kyun.
22. Laraib Atta
This Pakistani professional VFX artist has worked as a visual effects artist for several Hollywood films which include ‘10,000 BC‘, ‘The Chronicles of Narnia‘, ‘Prince of Persia‘, ‘Godzilla‘ and ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past‘.
23. Rahat Fateh Ali Khan
Khan is the first Pakistani to be invited to the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize ceremony to perform at its concert.
24. Art Malik
This Pakistani-born British actor is famous for his role in ‘The Jewel in the Crown‘. He has also played subsidary roles in assorted British and Merchant-Ivory television serials and films.
25. Yousaf Bashir Qureshi
Madonna, Angelina Jolie, Sheryl Crow, Alanis’ Marissette - Yousaf Bashir Qureshi has designed clothes for all of them.
26. Sajid Hassan
The popular Pakistani actor starred in Angelina Jolie-starrer ‘A Mighty Heart’.
27. Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy
This Pakistani journalist and filmmaker won an Academy Award and two Emmy Awards for her documentaries; ‘Pakistan’s Taliban Generation‘ in 2010 and ‘Saving Face‘ in 2012. Her Oscar win for Best Documentary for ‘Saving Face‘ made her the first Pakistani to win the coveted Academy Award. She is also the first non-American to win the Livingston Award for Young Journalists.
28. Ahmad Razvi
Ahmad Razvi is an actor and producer, known for ‘Man Push Cart‘, ‘Chop Shop‘ and ‘American Loser‘.
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