Adil Ray

Ray was born in Birmingham, England, to a Punjabi Muslim father from Lahore, and an Indo-Kenyan mother. He was brought up in the suburb of Yardley. Ray's father Abdul worked as a bus driver for almost forty years. His mother worked for the Immigration Appeals Department in the Civil Service and was of Buganda and Kenyan Asian ancestry. Ray was a keen cricketer and represented Birmingham and District Premier League side West Bromwich Dartmouth during the late-1980s and early-1990s. Ray graduated from the University of Huddersfield with a 2:1 BA (Hons) in Marketing in 1997. ==Career==

Ray began his career as a radio host on a pirate radio station in Huddersfield while studying at the University of Huddersfield, and DJing at the university venue Eden (1992). Later, during his placement year, he got a job with a new small Asian radio station in Birmingham, where he spent the first half of the year, before moving on to Choice FM (1995). In 1997, Ray landed a spot with Galaxy 105. He then joined Century Radio in Manchester, Radio Aire Leeds and Ministry of Sound Radio. BBC Ray joined the BBC Asian Network in 2002 to present the late-night Adil Ray Show. Ray has been a regular on BBC Radio 5 Live presenting the late night show, the Football and Cricket 606 phone ins, Victoria Derbyshire, Weekend Breakfast and Fighting Talk. and Towering Ambition. He has also appeared in the award-winning BBC Asian Network radio soap, Silver Street. He has also filmed a documentaries strand for BBC Two called Explore, in which he reported from Argentina and Turkey. In 2010, Ray reprised his role as Mr. Khan to feature in his own web series for BBC Comedy to cover the UK general election. Mr. Khan returned later in the year with a follow-up BBC Comedy web series about the cricket to coincide with the Pakistan national team's visit to England that year. In the summer of 2010, Ray joined BBC Radio 5 Live as part of their cricket coverage, travelling to Sri Lanka and Bangladesh to cover the 2011 Cricket World Cup. He can often be heard presenting the 5 Live late-night show. Ray continues to make documentaries for BBC Radio 4 including The Real Mr. Khan, a documentary looking into the role of community leaders. Ray also tackled the issue of sex and grooming in the British Pakistani community in a BBC Radio 4 documentary entitled The Sex Lives of British Pakistanis that was broadcast on 4 July 2011, as well as a highly acclaimed BBC Three documentary in December 2011 – Exposed: Groomed For Sex. Ray continued his venture into comedy including the radio pilot Sparkhill Sound that broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 12 May 2011. A community radio station set in Birmingham. Ray was both writer and performer alongside Anil Gupta (writer), Gary Pillai, and Vineeta Rishi (cast). In 2015, Ray guest presented three episodes of The One Show alongside Alex Jones. Ray also hosted S60E02 of Have I Got A Bit More News For You in 2020, alongside Merton and Hislop, with guests Kiri Pritchard-McLean and Nicky Morgan. Citizen Khan In October 2011, Ray performed the co-written comedy Citizen Khan at the BBC Salford Sitcom Showcase, centred on Ray's comedy creation Mr Khan and his long-suffering family. Commissioned as a BBC One primetime series, the Asian Muslim sitcom follows the trials and tribulations of big-hearted, loud-mouthed, tight-fisted, self-appointed community leader Mr Khan (Adil Ray) and his long-suffering family: wife Mrs Khan (Shobu Kapoor) and daughters Shazia (Maya Sondhi) and Alia (Bhavna Limbachia). The six 30-minute episodes of Citizen Khan were commissioned by Danny Cohen, BBC One Controller, and Cheryl Taylor, Controller of Comedy Commissioning, and have been produced by BBC In-House Comedy. The Executive Producer is Mark Freeland, the Producer is Paul Schlesinger (Twenty Twelve) and the Director is Nick Wood (Fresh Meat, Not Going Out, Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps). Citizen Khan is written by Anil Gupta and Richard Pinto (The Kumars at No 42, Goodness Gracious Me) with Adil Ray. The series was renewed for four further series of six episodes plus a Christmas special each, ending on 23 December 2016. ITV In August 2018, Ray temporarily replaced Piers Morgan as a co-host on ITV's Good Morning Britain. From February 2019, Ray has become the guest presenter for Good Morning Britain, appearing during the February, April and Summer Holidays. In 2019, Ray played the role of Murad Beg in ITV's six-part historical drama series Beecham House. The series is set in 1795 in Delhi, India, and co-created, directed and produced by Gurinder Chadha. In 2020, Ray was scheduled twice weekly during the summer holidays in July and August, covering for the main presenters during their summer break. During this time, Ray continued the show's coverage of the Coronavirus Pandemic, most often presenting on Thursdays with Charlotte Hawkins and Fridays with Ranvir Singh. Ray portrayed Imran Khan in ITV's acclaimed 2021 mini-series Stephen. The series, written by Frank Cottrell Boyce and Joe Cottrell Boyce, was based on the book in Pursuit of the Truth by DCI Clive Driscoll, about the 1993 murder of Stephen Lawrence, and starred Steve Coogan in the role of DCI Clive Driscoll. In 2021, Ray began presenting the revival of word-based quiz show Lingo, which premiered on New Year's Day. In 2023, Ray was chosen to host US pilot episodes of the gameshow Lucky 13. Film In 2020, Ray starred as Mandeep Singh in supernatural comedy Blithe Spirit, alongside Dame Judi Dench, Isla Fischer, Dan Stevens, Leslie Mann and Emilia Clarke. The film, which was based on Noël Coward's 1941 stage farce, is the second feature film adaptation, after David Lean's 1945 version. Ray starred as James in the 2024 Sky Original film ''Arthur's Whisky'', led by Diane Keaton, Patricia Hodge and Lulu. in 2025, Ray played Mukul in Amazon Prime Video's original romantic comedy Picture This, which starred Simone Ashley and Hero Fiennes Tiffin in the lead roles. Smooth Radio At the end of December 2024, Ray went back to his radio roots when he joined Smooth Radio as a guest presenter over the Christmas and New Year period. Following his guest presenting success, it was announced that from March 2025, Ray would host his own Saturday mid-morning show. Film and television production Ray is the co-founder and Creative Director of Cornered Tiger, a multi-genre, Birmingham-based production company. Ray and co-founder Debbie Manners launched Cornered Tiger in 2020, with the purpose of developing ideas with diversity at the very heart of its content, and telling new stories by new and emerging diverse talent. Cornered Tiger produced the 2023 documentary Is Cricket Racist? for Channel 4, which was nominated for a 2024 Royal Television Society (Midlands) Documentary award, as well as for Sports Documentary of the Year at the 2023 Broadcast Sport Awards. Cornered Tiger has several projects in development with major terrestrial television broadcasters and streaming platforms. ==Personal life==

In January 2021, Ray stated he was single and had been for a long time, still looking for "the one". He is a keen cricket fan and supports his local team Warwickshire and the national team of Pakistan. He is also a fan of Aston Villa F.C. On 5 November 2025, on social media platform X, he wrote: "Some say Zohran Mamdani|[Zohran] Mamdani may implement Sharia Law. He might. The heart of Sharia is social justice, welfare, fairness, charity and cohesion. Most Muslim countries operate a hybrid of Sharia & civil law, are slowly reforming and abandoning unethical practices despite the west’s portrayal." This drew widespread backlash on X and elsewhere. Two days later, Adil said: "To clarify. I am not actually suggesting Mamdani would implement 'sharia law'. But many of the issues he campaigned for are also some of the positive values of Sharia that Muslims try to live by. Something many of us would agree on." ==Charity and campaigns ==

Ray is involved in several charities and foundations: he is an ambassador for the Aston Villa Foundation, a registered charity that delivers the community and charity work of Aston Villa Football Club; a patron of Acorns Children's Hospice, a registered charity offering a network of palliative care and support to life-limited and life-threatened children and their families across the West Midlands region and part of South West England; and an ambassador for Pancreatic Cancer UK. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Ray spearheaded a campaign to encourage BAME groups across the UK to take the coronavirus vaccine. He created a series of video messages featuring famous persons and personalities from the Black Asian and Minority Ethnic groups, including Romesh Ranganathan, Meera Syal, David Olusoga, Moeen Ali, Beverley Knight, Denise Lewis, Sadiq Khan, Baroness Warsi and others. The videos, which aimed to inform and dispel false myths about the vaccine, were broadcast simultaneously across major terrestrial channels ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, and Sky. ==Honours, awards and nominations==

• UK Asian Music Award – Best Radio Show (2008) • Royal Television Award Nomination – Is It Coz I Is Black (2007) In January 2013, Ray was nominated for the Arts and Culture Awareness award at the British Muslim Awards. Ray was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2016 Birthday Honours for services to broadcasting. Since 2017, Ray has been on the board of the National Film and Television School. ==Credits==

Television Radio ==References==