Ash Atalla (born 18 June 1972) is an Egyptian-born British

television producer A television producer is a person who oversees one or more aspects of a television show, 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 acce ...

. He has produced several

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

TV series such as ''

The Office ''The Office'' is the title of several mockumentary sitcoms based on a British series originally created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant as '' The Office'' in 2001. The original series also starred Gervais as manager and primary charac ...

'', ''

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

'', '' Man Stroke Woman'' and '' People Just Do Nothing''. 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, television producer and filmmaker. He co-created, co-wrote, and acted in the British television sitcoms ''The Office (British TV series), The Office'' (2001–2003) ...

's ''Politics''.

Early life

Atalla was born into a middle-class family in

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

. He developed

polio Poliomyelitis ( ), commonly shortened to polio, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. Approximately 75% of cases are asymptomatic; mild symptoms which can occur include sore throat and fever; in a proportion of cases more severe ...

as a baby and uses a wheelchair. He emigrated to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

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

University of Bath The University of Bath is a public research university in Bath, England. Bath received its royal charter in 1966 as Bath University of Technology, along with a number of other institutions following the Robbins Report. Like the University ...

. 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 channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

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

''. Atalla joined the production company

Talkback Thames Talkback Thames is a British television production company, a division of Fremantle (company), FremantleMedia (now Fremantle), part of the RTL Group, which in turn is owned by Bertelsmann. It was formed by the merger of Talkback (production com ...

in 2004 as Head of Comedy and produced both the science spoof ''Look Around You'' for BBC2, and the third series of '' Bo Selecta!'' 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 Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the Christian doctrine concerning the nature of God, which defines one God existing in three, , consubstantial divine persons: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ) and God the Holy Spirit, thr ...

'' for

ITV2 ITV2 is a Television in the United Kingdom, 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 fiv ...

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

Sky 1 Sky One was a British pay television channel operated and owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast). Originally launched on 26 April 1982 as Satellite Television, it was Europe's first satellite and non- terrestrial channel. From 31 July 1989, ...

), ''

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 somet ...

'' (

BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes for a 16 to 34-year-old target aud ...

), ''

World's Craziest Fools ''World's Craziest Fools'' is a clip show made by Roughcut TV for BBC Three, presented by Mr. T. It showcases clips, sometimes viral, of people making themselves look like "Fools" (a reference to Mr. T's catchphrase), often by accident. Many c ...

'' - starring

Mr. T Laurence T (born Laurence Tureaud; May 21, 1952), known professionally as Mr. T, is an American actor and retired Professional wrestling, professional wrestler. He is known for his roles as B. A. Baracus in the 1980s television series ''The A ...

(BBC Three), ''

Anna & Katy ''Anna & Katy'' is a British comedy sketch show, beginning on Channel 4 on 6 March 2013 following a pilot edition as part of the ''Comedy Lab'' series in 2011. It featured regular comedy partners Anna Crilly and Katy Wix, with regular guests in ...

'' (Channel 4), '' People Just Do Nothing'' (BBC Three), '' Mad Mad World'' ( ITV 1) and '' Top Coppers'' (BBC Three). He has also made cameo appearances in productions such as Ricky Gervais' ''Politics,

, and Dad''.

References

External links

Roughcut TV
* * 1972 births Living people Alumni of the University of Bath Television producers from London Egyptian emigrants to England Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom Egyptian people with disabilities British people with disabilities Mass media people from Cairo British wheelchair users {{UK-tv-bio-stub