Nick Mohammed looks back: ‘Magic became the superpower I needed, growing up a short, brown kid in 1980s Leeds’

The comedian and magician on his teenage survival tricks, the teacher who inspired Mr Swallow, and how Ted Lasso and Traitors changed his life Born in Leeds in 1980, Nick Mohammed is a comedian and magician. He left his PhD in seismology at Cambridge to pursue comedy full-time. As well as appearing in TV shows such as Miranda, Life’s Too Short and Stath Lets Flats, he has toured as Mr Swallow – a comedy character magician he developed while in Footlights. From 2020 to 2023 he played Nate Shelley in Ted Lasso, and was in the 2025 series of The Celebrity Traitors. His current Mr Swallow show, Show Pony, tours from 9 April to 20 June. This was taken on holiday with my mum, dad and big sister, either in the Lake District or Norfolk. It would have been a day out on a farm – I look half delighted and half terrified to ride a pony. I probably got to feed a guinea pig at some point, too, and afterwards we would have gone back to a cottage to have sausages, chips and beans. At this age I was the odd combination of being very shy but also an attention seeker. When I was five, I had watched a Paul Daniels magic show on Saturday-night TV and instantly wanted to do it myself. My auntie g