# Ace Bhatti

Ahsen Rafiq "Ace" Bhatti is a British actor. Early in his career, he appeared in the BBC series Cardiac Arrest (1994–1995), Holding On (1997), NCS: Manhunt (2001–2002), and New Street Law (2006–2007), as well as the ITV series Cold Blood (2005–2008). He had a recurring role in the Doctor Who spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures (2008–2011) and played Yusef Khan in the soap opera EastEnders (2010–2011).

## Early life and education

Bhatti was born in Nottingham. He trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

## Career

Bhatti began acting at age fourteen starring in the children series Dramarama, however it wasn't until the nineties until he furthered his career, for which he appeared in the British soap opera Family Pride, Band of Gold, Holding On, and most notably as Dr Rajesh Rajah in Cardiac Arrest, among many other television roles during this time. In 2002, Bhatti made a brief appearance in Bend It Like Beckham, played the central character Dave in BBC Three's dark comedy Grease Monkeys (2003), and played flashy Ash Aslan in 2006's New Street Law. In 2007, he took on a minor role for two episodes in the first series of Secret Diary of a Call Girl as Ashok, a regular client of the main character, Belle. He reappeared in 2010 in the same role. In 2008, Bhatti appeared as a supporting character in the second series of The Sarah Jane Adventures, and reprised his role for the third series in 2009, the fourth series in 2010 and in the fifth series in 2011. Although credited in his early career by his birth name Ahsen Bhatti, Bhatti changed his professional name to Ace Bhatti (Ace is a childhood nickname). In 2011, he played Commander Khokar in the BBC2 series The Shadow Line.
In April 2013, Bhatti became a patron of Theatre Royal Wakefield. In 2018, he played Freddie Mercury's father Bomi Bulsara in the biopic Bohemian Rhapsody.

### EastEnders

In 2010, Bhatti was cast as Yusef Khan, the father of already established character Afia Masood (Meryl Fernandes). Bhatti was already known to EastEnders executive producer Bryan Kirkwood when he auditioned for the part, as Kirkwood and Bhatti worked on Coronation Street at the same time. Bhatti was the only actor who auditioned for the part of Yusef. In fact, Wadia recommended Bhatti to Kirkwood to play Yusef, as she "thought that he definitely had the quality that Yusef would need—which is a very ambiguous but charming quality!" Bhatti explained to Digital Spy that the EastEnders cast are very welcoming. He explained: "They're so welcoming. There's a lot of joking about. I'm having a great time at EastEnders - it's a real privilege to be here. I've known Nitin and Nina Wadia, who plays Zainab, for a very long time and we've always got on very well. Nitin and I play tense scenes together so it's nice that we can have a laugh afterwards." He featured in a domestic violence storyline in late 2011 with co-star Nina Wadia who plays Yusef's wife Zainab. Yusef starts to abuse Zainab both physically and mentally. He forbids Zainab to leave the house and later starts using her son, Kamil, to control her. Wadia explains that she wants the storyline to have a positive impact against real-life violence. She told BBC News: "I think the idea behind showing a strong woman like Zainab changing like this is to show that it can happen to even the strongest of women. They can change and they can be manipulated - especially if they're isolated from their friends and family. The manipulator can take advantage, so it's to prove that it can even happen to people like her. To be honest, if even one woman rings that Action Line at the end of the show and there's some difference made to her life, I'll feel like we've done our job," she continued. "It is a serious issue and I'm glad it's being highlighted. I hope that it wakes anyone up - not just women, I know that there are abused men out there as well. So if it gives anyone the strength to leave a relationship like that, we'll have done our job." The scenes where Yusef refused to let Zainab see Kamil pulled in 8.69m viewers at 7.30pm. BBC Three's repeat of the episode later secured 994k viewers at 10pm.

## Selected filmography
### Film

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1995 | Brothers in Trouble | Irshad | |
| 1995 | The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Treasure of the Peacock's Eye | Indian Lieutenant | TV Movie |
| 1997 | Sixth Happiness | Cyrus | |
| 1999 | Last Christmas | Doctor | TV Movie |
| 2002 | Bend It Like Beckham | Nairobi Grandson | |
| 2004 | The Deputy | Nickhall Gangwani | TV Movie |
| 2004 | The Secret of Year Six | Abdul | Short |
| 2006 | Bradford Riots | Faisal | |
| 2007 | Frankenstein | Dr. Dhillon | TV Movie |
| 2009 | Wish 143 | Consultant | Short |
| 2010 | My Lad | Aziz | Short |
| 2010 | It's a Wonderful Afterlife | Tej | |
| 2013 | The Last Witch | Doctor | TV Movie |
| 2015 | Amar Akbar & Tony | Doc | |
| 2016 | High Strung, Free Dance | Ravi | |
| 2018 | Bohemian Rhapsody | Bomi Bulsara | |
| 2019 | Break Clause | Kadir |
| 2023 | Runs in the family | Varun Chetty | |

### Television

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1984 | Dramarama | Eddie | Josephine Jo |
| 1991 | Family Pride | Suresh | |
| 1994 | Finney | McDade's Minder | 4 episodes |
| 1994–95 | Cardiac Arrest | Dr. Rajesh Rajah | 27 episodes |
| 1995 | The Ghostbusters of East Finchley | DI Cunliffe | 2 episodes |
| 1995–96 | Band of Gold | Dez | 4 episodes |
| 1997–98 | The Bill | Sunil Davdra | 4 episodes |
| 1997 | Holding On | Zahid | 8 episodes |
| 1998 | Verdict | Sanjay Mehta | |
| 1999 | Cleopatra | Sceptical Citizen | 2 episodes |
| 1999 | Grafters | Tom | 5 episodes |
| 2000 | Harbour Lights | Ramesh | |
| 2000 | Peak Practice | Specialist | |
| 2000 | Silent Witness | DCI Ranjeet Naval | Episode: "The World Cruise" (2 parts) |
| 2000 | Urban Gothic | Jim Takeshi | |
| 2001 | Dalziel and Pascoe | Ravi Ghataura | |
| 2001 | Love or Money | Ali | |
| 2001-2 | NCS: Manhunt | DC Johnny Khan | 7 episodes |
| 2002–05 | Holby City | Andy Fishman | |
| 2003 | Emmerdale | Bobby Khan | |
| 2003 | The Second Coming | Peter Gupta | 2 episodes |
| 2003–04 | Grease Monkeys | Dave Dhillon | 20 episodes |
| 2004 | Bodies | Rajesh Rajah | 2 episodes |
| 2005 | Life Isn't All Ha Ha Hee Hee | Deepak | 3 episodes (mini series) |
| 2005 | Ultimate Force | Handsome | |
| 2005–06 | Coronation Street | Jayesh Parekh | 12 episodes |
| 2005-08 | Cold Blood | Ajay Roychowdury | 5 episodes |
| 2006 | Blue Murder | Saadiq Aziz | |
| 2006 | Goldplated | Haq | 4 episodes |
| 2006–07 | New Street Law | Ash Aslan | 10 episodes |
| 2007 | Casualty | Andy Fishman | |
| 2007–08 | Secret Diary of a Call Girl | Ashok | 3 episodes |
| 2008 | Kiss of Death | Miles Trueman | |
| 2008–11 | The Sarah Jane Adventures | Haresh Chandra | 24 episodes |
| 2009 | Casualty | Rafiq | |
| 2009 | Coming Up | Shahid | |
| 2009 | The Fixer | Supari | |
| 2009 | New Tricks | Geeten Mistry | |
| 2009 | Spooks | Amish Mani | |
| 2010–11 | EastEnders | Yusef Khan | 94 episodes |
| 2011 | The Shadow Line | Commander Khokar | 4 episodes |
| 2012 | Midsomer Murders | Harry Dutta | 1 episode |
| 2014 | Silent Witness | Mousa Rashid | Episode: "Commodity" (2 parts) |
| 2014 | Silk | Dani Kakwani | 2 episodes |
| 2014 | From There to Here | DI Graves | 2 episodes |
| 2014 | In the Club | Vinay | 1 episode |
| 2014 | Lewis | Rizwan Nooran | Episode: "Entry Wounds" |
| 2015 | Father Brown | Syrus | Episode: "The Lair of the Libertines" |
| 2015 | Jekyll and Hyde | Dr. Vishal Najaran | 3 episodes |
| 2016 | Shetland | Calvin Sarwar | 3 episodes |
| 2016 | Beowulf | Harken | 4 episodes |
| 2016 | DCI Banks | Malik Nadir | 4 episodes |
| 2017 | Three Girls | Nazir Afzal | 2 episodes |
| 2017 | Still Star-Crossed | Venetian Moneylender | Episode: "The Course of True Love Never Did Run Smooth" |
| 2017 | Love, Lies and Records | Mr. Hussain | 1 episode |
| 2018 | Shakespeare & Hathaway: Private Investigators | Chester Patterson | Episode: "This Rough Magic" |
| 2018 | No Offence | Mayor Hassan | 3 episodes |
| 2018 | Hounslow Diaries | Uncle Abdul Azeez | Episode: "Pilot" |
| 2019–21 | Line of Duty | PCC Rohan Sindwhani | 8 episodes |
| 2020 | The Stranger | Parth Kuhalam | |
| 2020-2024 | Alex Rider | John Crawley | 21 episodes |
| 2021 | Baptiste | Nadeem | Series 2: 6 episodes |
| 2021 | Agatha Raisin | Sylvan Dubois | Episode: There Goes The Bride |
| 2022 | Ackley Bridge | Imran Farooqi | |
| 2022 | The Good Karma Hospital | Jules Fonseca | Series 4: 2 episodes |
| 2023 | The Effects of Lying | Naveen | TV film |
| 2024 | McDonald & Dodds | George Sharma | Episode: "The Rule of Three" |
| TBA | Malpractice | TBA | Upcoming role |