Kayvan Novak has said he has felt more conscious of his ethnicity since becoming an actor.

The Fonejacker and Four Lions star, whose parents are Iranian, told the Radio Times that he felt there were certain programmes that he was ruled out of appearing in.

He said: “As an ethnic actor I still feel I can’t be in Downton Abbey or in period dramas. The opportunities for me as an actor are narrow, but I’m lucky enough to have people like Neil Webster and Ben Palmer (writers of BBC series SunTrap in which he stars with Brdley Walsh) creating roles for me that have nothing to do with where I’m from.”

Kayvan Novak
Kayvan Novak (John Phillips/PA)

Kayvan also pointed out that British actors from ethnic backgrounds often had more success in the US: “Look at The Wire, for example – one of the most amazing shows out of America, and the two leads are English.”

But he added that it could be another form of stereotyping: “I think that’s them thinking the best trained actors come from the UK, and the prettiest from Australia.”

SunTrap
Kayvan Novak stars in SunTrap (BBC)

Kayvan also said of life after his hit sketch show Fonejacker: “I’m so glad I didn’t give up and quit because I wanted to. The second series of Fonejacker almost killed me. It was incredibly intense. Generating comic material can sometimes get the better of you.”