Ash Atalla (born 18 June 1972) is an

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...

ian-born British

television producer A television producer is a person who oversees one or more aspects of video production on a television program. Some producers take more of an executive role, in that they conceive new programs and pitch them to the television networks, but upon ...

. He has produced several British TV series such as ''

The Office ''The Office'' is a mockumentary sitcom created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, first made in the United Kingdom, then Germany, and subsequently the United States. It has since been remade in ten other countries. The original ser ...

'', ''

The IT Crowd ''The IT Crowd'' is a British sitcom originally broadcast by Channel 4, written and directed by Graham Linehan, produced by Ash Atalla and starring Chris O'Dowd, Richard Ayoade, Katherine Parkinson, and Matt Berry. Set in the offices of the f ...

'', '' Man Stroke Woman'' and ''

People Just Do Nothing ''People Just Do Nothing'' is a British television mockumentary sitcom, created and performed by Allan Mustafa, Steve Stamp, Asim Chaudhry and Hugo Chegwin. The programme follows the lives of MC Grindah, DJ Beats and their friends, who run ...

''. He has also made cameo appearances in productions such as

Ricky Gervais Ricky Dene Gervais ( ; born 25 June 1961) is an English comedian, actor, writer, and director. He co-created, co-wrote, and acted in the British television sitcoms ''The Office'' (2001–2003), '' Extras'' (2005–2007), and ''An Idiot Abroad'' ...

's ''Politics''.

Early life

Atalla was born into a middle-class family in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metr ...

. He developed

polio Poliomyelitis, commonly shortened to polio, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. Approximately 70% of cases are asymptomatic; mild symptoms which can occur include sore throat and fever; in a proportion of cases more severe sy ...

as a baby and uses a wheelchair. He emigrated to

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

due to his father's job. He read business and finance at the

University of Bath (Virgil, Georgics II) , mottoeng = Learn the culture proper to each after its kind , established = 1886 (Merchant Venturers Technical College) 1960 (Bristol College of Science and Technology) 1966 (Bath University of Technology) 1971 (univ ...

. He briefly worked as a stockbroker and a currency trader before, at 22, he found unpaid work on BBC ''Watchdog''.

Career

Atalla made his first appearance on TV in 1999 when he co-presented a

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

series on disability, ''Freak Out''. In 2001, he produced the sitcom ''

''. Atalla joined the production company

Talkback Thames Talkback Thames (stylised as talkbackTHAMES) was a British television production company, a division of Fremantle (part of the RTL Group, which in turn is owned by Bertelsmann). It was formed by the merger of Talkback Productions and Thames ...

in 2004 as Head of Comedy and produced both the science spoof ''Look Around You'' for BBC2, and the third series of ''

Bo Selecta! ''Bo' Selecta!'' is a British television sketch show written and performed by Leigh Francis. It was broadcast on Channel 4 from 2002 until 2009 and lampooned popular culture, becoming known for its often surreal, abstract toilet humour. Seaso ...

'' In 2005 he devised and began work on ''Man Stroke Woman'', a comedy sketch show about "growing up" which aired from 2005 to 2007. He also produced ''

'' (2006-2010). In 2007, Atalla set up Roughcut TV, an independent production company. Atalla and Roughcut produced ''

Trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God th ...

'' for

ITV2 ITV2 is a British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998. For a number of years, it had the largest audience share after the five analogue terrestrial stations, ...

in 2008. Roughcut TV has since produced shows for all the UK's major broadcasters, including '' Trollied'' ( Sky 1), ''

Cuckoo Cuckoos are birds in the Cuculidae family, the sole taxon in the order Cuculiformes . The cuckoo family includes the common or European cuckoo, roadrunners, koels, malkohas, couas, coucals and anis. The coucals and anis are sometimes separ ...

'' (

BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes targeting 16 to 34-year-olds, covering all genres including animation, comedy, cur ...

), '' World's Craziest Fools'' - starring Mr. T (BBC Three), '' Anna & Katy'' (Channel 4), ''

'' (BBC Three), '' Mad Mad World'' (

ITV 1 ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: **ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Island ...

) and ''

Top Coppers ''Top Coppers'' (released 19 August 2015) is a British sitcom, co-written and created by Andy Kinnear and Céin McGillicuddy and directed by Céin McGillicuddy. It was broadcast on BBC Three, BBC Two, and was available on Netflix UK. Backgro ...

'' (BBC Three). He has also made cameo appearances in productions such as Ricky Gervais' ''Politics''.

References

External links

Roughcut TV
* * 1972 births Living people British television producers Egyptian emigrants to the United Kingdom People with polio Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom {{UK-tv-bio-stub

Early life

Career

See also

References

External links