Akmal Saleh

Akmal Saleh is an Egyptian-Australian comedian and actor. He was born in Egypt and arrived in Sydney with his family in 1975 at the age of 10. He has been performing comedy since the early 1990s and his live shows have toured comedy festivals both within Australia and internationally. He has also made guest appearances on numerous Australian television series, including Superwog. He grew up in Punchbowl, New South Wales, and describes himself as having been a quiet child who was "the class clown's assistant".

Saleh began performing stand-up comedy in 1990, when he decided to take part in an open mic night at the Sydney Comedy Store. For a time he performed under the alias "Peter Saleh" so that people would think he was white. In 1992 he co-wrote and starred in the show All Aussies are Boofta and also the Best alongside fellow comedians Anthony Mir and Gary Eck, which was followed by the live shows Bound and Gagged and Hoot, the latter touring the 1996 Adelaide Fringe Festival, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. In 1999 the trio created the television show The Fifty-Foot Show for The Comedy Channel.

Saleh commonly jokes about his own ethnicity and negative stereotypes regarding Middle Easterners, though he says he does not want to become known as an "ethnic comic". He emerged on Australian radio in January 2007, filling in for Merrick and Rosso on Nova before receiving his own drive-time show, and later co-hosted The Wrong Way Home with comedians Cal Wilson and Ed Kavalee. He has appeared on numerous Australian television shows including Good News Week, Spicks and Specks and Thank God You're Here, and has performed voiceover work for films including 100% Wolf (2020).