First-Time Nominee Spotlight: Nick Mohammed
We recently gave you a roundup of first-time actor nominees, and as a part of our continued Emmy coverage, it’s time to take a deeper look at this year’s list. We’re kicking off this new Spotlight series with Nick Mohammed, who received his first-ever Emmy nomination for playing Nate Shelley on the hit AppleTV+ series Ted Lasso. Mohammed has been on the UK comedy scene for a while, but if he’s flown under your radar until now, don’t worry. We’re providing a window into the actor behind the “Nate the Great” character, along with what led up to his recognition from the Television Academy.
Mohammed told The Guardian that his career as a performer started as a magician, recalling how he’d received his first magic set as a young child and started coaching at the age of 14. He joined the junior section of the Northern Magic Circle and eventually used paid magician gigs as a way to put himself through college. But his area of study was not performance-based. Mohammed majored in geophysics at the University of Durham, where he also twice auditioned to be part of the Durham Revue.
His attempts to perform comedy through the sketch troupe — while pursuing a very left-brained area of study — were unsuccessful, though. When he entered into a geophysics Ph.D. program at Cambridge, however, Mohammed had better luck with the university’s student comedy society, the Footlights. He shared during an interview with one alma mater publication how he took time out from his Ph.D. program to perform in the Footlights’ Edinburgh Festival Fringe run, “pretty much knowing I would never go back [to it].”
It was at the 2014 Edinburgh Festival Fringe when he was spotted by casting director Nina Gold while performing as the title character in his Mr Swallow — The Musical, which led to Mohammed’s role in Ridley Scott’s The Martian. Other film appearances include Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie and Bridget Jones’s Baby, along with lending his voice to the character of Piglet in Christopher Robin. Mohammed also has a number of UK television credits to his name, including variety shows on which he’s brought the Mr Swallow character first developed on stage.
And then there’s Intelligence, the Sky One original series Mohammed created, wrote, and executive produced alongside co-star David Schwimmer. The workplace comedy with a twist was acquired by Peacock and recently released its second season. In it, Mohammed plays another type of sidekick character, albeit a very different one than “Nate the Great” in Ted Lasso.
Speaking of the series that earned Mohammed his first-ever Emmy nomination, the popularity of the show has come with some adjustments when it comes to being recognized in his day-to-day life. The actor relayed to Entertainment Weekly how he’d been recognized on a recent trip to the London Zoo with his family. “I was wearing a cap and glasses — just because it was sunny — and a mask and someone said, ‘Oh, Nate the Great!’” Mohammed recalled. “Actually, my wife thought that they said, ‘Nature’s great!’ Because it was a zoo.”
Come September 19 when this year’s 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards air, we’ll find out if Mohammed goes from first-time nominee — for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series — to first-time winner. But no matter what, we certainly think he’s earned his place in the spotlight.
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