Dinner Speaker

Akmal Saleh akmal

Akmal Saleh is an Egyptian Australian comedian and actor. He was born in Egypt and arrived in Sydney with his family in 1975 at the age of 11. He has been performing comedy since the early 1990s and his live shows have toured comedy festivals both within Australia and internationally. He has also made guest appearances on numerous Australian television shows.

While his father Riyadh, a university professor, was fluent in English, neither Saleh nor his mother Marie could speak the language when they arrived. He describes himself as having been a quiet child who was "the class clown's assistant. I was the guy who got his props ready.

Saleh performs solo stand-up shows and has toured numerous comedy festivals in both in Australia and internationally. He commonly jokes about his own ethnicity and negative stereotypes regarding Middle Easterners. However, he says that he does not want to become known as an "ethnic comic" and likes to be able to talk about "broad range of stuff".

He says that he is most comfortable performing stand-up: "It's the thing that I do best. I'm not a radio guy. I'm a comedian doing radio."