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Sami Abu Wardeh
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Sami Abu Wardeh (Arabic: سامي ابو وردة; born March 1986) is a Kuwait-born character comedian, writer and actor. He is known for his live comedy shows Bedu (2022) and Palestine: Peace de Resistance (2025), which he performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
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Early life
Abu Wardeh was born in Kuwait to a Palestinian Bedouin father and a Liverpool-born mother of Irish Catholic parentage. Through his mother, Abu Wardeh is a British citizen by birth.[1][2] Abu Wardeh was displaced from Kuwait by the Gulf War as a child and moved around growing up, living in nearly 20 places.[3] He began his medicine studies at a UK university in 2004.[4]
Career
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In 2021, Abu Wardeh started working with the comedy duo Marina and Maddy, also known as Siblings. The pair recruited him for a joint show titled Sami & Siblings at their 2022 Brighton Fringe return.[5]
Abu Wardeh made his solo debut with his comedy show Bedu at the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.[6] Abu Wardeh described his comedy style as "character clowning", embodying a series of characters throughout the set, starting with a Palestinian refugee.[1] Brian Logan of The Guardian named Bedu one of the 10 best comedy shows of 2022.[7] In addition, Abu-Wardeh co-created the show Clownts, a competitive clown show, with Julia Masli, John-Luke Roberts and Viggo Venn. Abu Wardeh won the set.[8] Since 2022, Abu Wardeh has regularly participated in Arabs Are Not Funny!, a recurring comedy night.[9]
The following year, Abu Wardeh created and starred in the five-part Channel 4 digital sitcom The Sheikh, a satire about a wealthy Sheikh expatriating in Britain.[10] As a playwright, Abu Wardeh contributed to Cutting the Tightrope: The Divorce of Politics from Art, a 2024 collection of short plays written in response to censorship surrounding Palestine in the arts.[11]
Abu Wardeh returned to the 2025 Edinburgh Fringe with his second solo comedy show Palestine: Peace de Resistance,[12] which he described as "an hour of jokes, storytelling and clowning based on the history of anticolonial resistance".[13] The absurdist show follows a 1960s Palestinian character Merguez who meets an Algerian woman.[14] Palestine: Peace de Resistance won the Heart Award at the Besties Awards[15] and was shortlisted for Neurodiverse Review's ADHD Comedy Award.[16] Also at the Fringe in addition to dates in Newcastle and Glasgow, Abu Wardeh joined the line-up of Palestine Stands Up with Alaa Shehada, Diana Sweity and Hanna Shammas.[4]
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References
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