Nick Mohammed has been trustworthy to the stage for a really very long time; his helium-voiced comedy character Mr Swallow has been a fixture at comedy venues for 16 years. But he reckons he landed the gig internet hosting the Oliviers, the largest evening in theatre, due to a powerful efficiency elsewhere: The Celebrity Traitors. There, he sleuthed his strategy to the finish, nearly taking down eventual winner Alan Carr, earlier than falling at the last hurdle. “I’m sure Celebrity Traitors is one of the biggest, if not the single reason I’m getting to host the Oliviers,” the funnyman tells me. “I could have gone out on day one or two, and then I probably wouldn’t be doing it.”
Mohammed is an impressed selection, selecting up the mantle from Beverley Knight, Billy Porter, and his Ted Lasso co-star Hannah Waddingham, who hosted in 2023 and 2024. In the previous twenty years, he’s turn into certainly one of the most dependable comedy actors, making visitor appearances in myriad 2010s sitcoms, together with Miranda, Life’s Too Short and Stath Lets Flats, earlier than creating his personal in 2020: Intelligence, co-starring David Schwimmer. That identical 12 months, Mohammed shot to international recognition taking part in football-kit man turned callous supervisor Nathan “Nate” Shelley in Ted Lasso – and offered the teeth-itchingly twee collection, certainly one of the largest small-screen hits of the final 10 years, with its edgiest character.
But he’s hoping the Oliviers go higher than his final award-show look. The actor took bombastic magician Mr Swallow to the Bafta Film Awards in 2024, truncating his 20-minute set down to 3 minutes. He barely had time to heat up and fireplace off a handful of high-pitched jokes earlier than rollerblading off stage; Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling appeared bemused. “It went dreadfully,” Mohammed remembers. “As soon as I came out on skates, off the back of someone doing a serious speech about representation in the film industry, people were literally like, ‘What is going on?’ And rightly so.” He hides a wince. “I would do it again in a heartbeat, but it was never going to work. There was never going to be a world where it could.”
Today, Mohammed spots me in the restaurant the place we’re assembly and bounds over to our desk, a gregarious grin on his face. There’s a lightness about him, and he reveals no signal of nerves about the forthcoming job, which is able to put him in the highlight as plain outdated Nick. Nerves could be legitimate, although; this 12 months, extra eyes might be on the ceremony than ever earlier than. It’ll be televised on the BBC for the first time since 2003, in celebration of its fiftieth anniversary, and whereas that thought would possibly make Mohammed gulp, he thinks he’ll be internet hosting to a friendlier room.
“Of all those ceremonies, it’s a nice one, because I think the theatre industry is more wholesome. Film and television ones tend to be a little bit more competitive. It feels like there’s a lot more ego in those worlds – and frankly, people aren’t being paid nearly as much as massive stars, so it changes the dynamic in the room.”
Mohammed has beforehand shied away from being solely himself in his skilled endeavours, together with in 2024, when he lastly agreed to participate in Channel 4 comedy establishment Taskmaster. (For all of his pre-recorded segments, Mohammed wearing full vampire regalia, make-up and all, as he felt “nervous” about being himself on display.) But then he appeared on Celebrity Traitors – the first thing he’d ever completed with out hiding behind a personality. He’s sure the present’s helped him to beat his nerves, however says his hesitancy to simply accept such TV appearances primarily stems from “wanting to preserve” a few of his thriller. He thinks different actors ought to comply with go well with.
When folks say it’s ‘too soon’ to make a joke, that is true
Nick Mohammed
“I’m relatively private as a person, and I think it was the desire not to give too much of myself away. I take a lot of value in the craft of acting. If you know too much about a person, sometimes when you see them in a role, you’re like, ‘I can still see that person in there.’”
He understands this is idealistic and can finally value him jobs – particularly now that studios favour placing well-known figures in the highlight over lesser-known expertise. “If you don’t have the TikTok or Instagram followers, you’re not going to get seen,” he declares. “It’s a mess. When I was with my old American agency, one of the first things that came up when you went to a client page on their website was a person’s number of followers. I found that a bit terrifying. But I also understand the business behind it. I’ve produced shows before, and you do think, ‘Well, I know people are going to watch this because this person’s connected to it.’”
In the finish, Celebrity Traitors followers warmed to Mohammed’s composure and his potential to share his views with out dominating roundtables. Unlike lots of his co-stars, he solely spoke when there was one thing necessary to say – in different phrases, a Traitors rarity. He escaped along with his fame intact, however says he ”wouldn’t be shocked” if somebody bought on the incorrect aspect of viewers by shedding their cool or talking out of line, as “it’s such a high-stress situation”.
Mohammed isn’t a comic who’s keen to sacrifice his morals for financial achieve at a time when some stand-up stars are more and more focusing on marginalised teams of their units, from immigrants to the trans neighborhood. Stewart Lee not too long ago highlighted that “there’s a positive financial value” to “creating offence”.
“I try to come at it from a pragmatic level. I think for all the woolliness surrounding what you can and can’t say, and whether cancel culture is a good thing or a bad thing, I’m like, first of all, is that an original take on that topic or a punch-down? The majority of the time, it’s just an obvious, easy joke, so I find it a shame because, from a creative point of view, that’s not exciting to me. Secondly, you can tell there are people who’ll be able to make fun of absolutely anything, and it will be funny depending on context and authenticity. It’s so obvious when it steps outside of those bounds and it’s just a gratuitous laugh. Everyone’s kidding themselves as to whether there’s a grey area; there is not – it’s just about whether you want to be a decent human being.”
How about world occasions? Is there a restrict on the topics comedians are allowed to poke enjoyable at, or ought to they be granted carte blanche to make gentle of any incident, no matter the time interval? “When people say ‘too soon’, that is true. This is a nonsense thing to say, but with the musical Six [about the wives of Henry VIII], if you were related to someone who had their head chopped off and it was a year later, you’d be like, ‘What the f*** are you doing? Do you know how painful that was?’ I’d be pissed off.” OK, however when’s the cut-off level? “If it happened two weeks ago or last year, it’s probably not fine. Four hundred years later? Absolutely.”
If you don’t have the TikTookay or Instagram followers, you’re not going to get seen
Nick Mohammed
A giant smile crosses Mohammed’s face when he brings up SNL UK. It took its candy time, however final month, the sketch show debuted a UK edition 50 years after beginning in the US, with the crème de la crème of comedians from the Fringe circuit becoming a member of its lineup. For Mohammed, it was price the wait. “I think it’s the best thing to have happened in British comedy since The Office. I honestly believe that. To be cynical about it, it’s a shame that it’s taken Americans to come in with a format and say, ‘Just do it like that.’ When I was starting out, there were so many production companies and channels wanting to emulate Saturday Night Live, and not having the guts to do it. But I think they’ve nailed it. I watched the first episode, and was literally emotional at the end when they all came out. If it was maybe 10 years ago, I would have killed for it.”
But the established Mohammed’s rising-star years are lengthy behind him. It seems like the leisure world is his oyster, now that his profile – and social media following (420k Insta followers, in case you should know) – has been significantly raised. He’s rejected provides to deliver Mr Swallow’s high-pitched tones to podcasts, however would find it irresistible if the character was given an old style six-part BBC sitcom. After presenting the Oliviers, Mohammed will proceed to tour Mr Swallow this 12 months. And if he’s returning in the fourth season of Ted Lasso, set to be launched in the summer time, he’s not telling. Meanwhile, his Hollywood profession is on the up – he’ll quickly co-star alongside James McAvoy and Julianne Moore in motion movie Cover.
If Mohammed is markedly staying in quite a lot of totally different lanes, this is by design. “It bothers me when I see actors who do one thing. They often do it brilliantly, but then I’m like, ‘Well, alright.’ I adore seeing Colin Firth and Jim Broadbent, because they bring a particular quality to a role that is very them, and the great thing about it is that it’s pure class, because they are the absolute pinnacle of what they do. But there are maybe some lesser actors, of which I count myself, where I’m like, ‘OK, my gimmick then has to be range.’” As far as gimmicks go, it’s a doozy.
The Olivier Awards 2026 will air Sunday (12 April) on BBC Two at 7pm
