Nick Mohammed reflects on magic, comedy and Mr Swallow

The photograph was taken on a family holiday—either in the Lake District or Norfolk—on a day out at a farm. He remembers looking “half delighted and half terrified” on the pony, feeding a guinea pig and returning to a cottage for sausages, chips and beans. Born in Leeds in 1980, he left a PhD in seismology at Cambridge to pursue comedy full time, has appeared in Miranda, Life’s Too Short and Stath Lets Flats, toured as Mr Swallow—created in Footlights—and played Nate Shelley in Ted Lasso from 2020 to 2023.

He also took part in the 2025 series of The Celebrity Traitors, and his current Mr Swallow show, Show Pony, tours from 9 April to 20 June. Magic arrived early. After watching a Paul Daniels show at five, his aunt bought him a magic set and the tricks became, as he puts it, “my superpower.” Growing up a short, brown child in 1980s and 90s Leeds, and the only person of colour in his primary school, he used performance to overcompensate and to survive the playground.

nick mohammed, mr swallow, show pony, ted lasso, miranda, celebrity traitors, paul daniels, seismology, footlights, leeds