Riaad Moosa

Riaad Moosa (born 18 June 1977 in Cape Town) is a South African comedian, actor and doctor. He grew up in Grassy Park and attended South Peninsula High School until 1994. His Indian-born father is an orthopaedic surgeon and his Cape Town-born Malay mother is a GP, and since childhood he wanted to study medicine. Before turning to medicine, he spent three years training in magic and became a silver medallion graduate of the College of Magic in Cape Town, starting his comedy career as a comedy magician.

Moosa spent six years training in medicine at the University of Cape Town Medical School, graduating in 2001 as a qualified medical doctor and GP, and worked for three years as a doctor. He started doing stand-up on campus during his fourth year at university and performed at the Cape Comedy Collective's free Comedy Lab workshops; just two months later he won the "One City, Many Comics Talent Competition" at the One City Festival in September 1999. He became a regular headliner on the comedy circuit, and in 2002 he supported Russell Peters in his show Made in India at the Luxurama theatre.

In 2003 Moosa performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, headlining in the Cape Comedy Collective production. His sold-out one-man shows include Strictly Halaal, Riaad Moosa for the Baracka, and the David Kramer-created shows Three Wise Men and Three Wiser Men. In 2007 he toured South Africa with the American Muslim comedy troupe Allah Made Me Funny, and in February 2010 he supported Eddie Izzard at the 46664 It's No Joke concert alongside comedians including Trevor Noah. He is a regular presenter of the segment The Second Opinion - with Dr Riaad Moosa on the satirical news programme Late Nite News with Loyiso Gola.