Amir Talai

**Amir Talai** (born June 24, 1977) is an American actor, singer, voice artist, writer, and activist. He is known for playing a variety of characters in musicals, movies and television shows.

## Early Life and Education

Talai was born and raised in San Francisco, CA and is the first child of Iranian immigrants, Mohammad and Sima Talai. He grew up in a Muslim family. Talai attended a French immersion school through 8th grade, after which he attended Lowell High School. He received a degree  from UC Berkeley with a major in Mass Communications and a minor in Dramatic Arts.

## Personal Life

Talai lives in Los Angeles, CA with his wife Nina Manni, who he married in 2011.

## Acting Career

Talai began working as an actor in San Francisco after graduating from UC Berkeley. He later moved to Los Angeles, where he enrolled in The Groundlings, eventually joining the Groundlings Sunday Company. Talai has more than 125 film, TV, and voice-over credits.

## Singing

Talai has performed on stage regionally including at the Hollywood Bowl in _Guys and Dolls_, _Annie_, and in the Paris Las Vegas hotel and casino's production of the Queen jukebox musical _We Will Rock You_.  He also had many singing parts in Hazbin Hotel as Alastor.

## Activism

Talai has been vocal on social media in regard to racism, misogyny, gun control, worker’s rights, and other issues. He has volunteered with numerous Democratic campaigns since 2004.

## Writing

Talai has written about depictions of Middle Eastern people for Vulture and Buzzfeed News, calling attention to the whitewashing of Middle Eastern actors and the death of opportunities for Middle Eastern actors to play roles that don't involve terrorism or Islam.

## Filmography

|style="background: #B0C4DE;"|Year|style="background: #B0C4DE;"|Title|style="background: #B0C4DE;"|Role|style="background: #B0C4DE;"|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|2003|_Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde_|Associate||||||
|rowspan=2|2004|_November_|George|||||
|_Homeland Security_|Babir Alkazar|TV movie Uncredited||||||
|rowspan=2|2006|_More, Patience_|Hypochondriac|TV movie||||
|_The Pursuit of Happyness_|Clerk|||||||
|2007|_Fighting Words_|Ralphie||||||
|rowspan=2|2008|_The Onion Movie_|Ahman|||||
|_Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay_|Raza|||||||
|2010|_Fractalus_|Lee||||||
|2011|_Best Player_|Wendell|TV movie|||||
|2012|_What to Expect When You're Expecting_|Patel||||||

## Television

|style="background: #B0C4DE;"|Year|style="background: #B0C4DE;"|Title|style="background: #B0C4DE;"|Role|style="background: #B0C4DE;"|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|2001|_Nash Bridges_|Khalid Dib|1 episode|||||
|rowspan=3|2002|_Plugged In_|Customer|Short||||
|_Hum_|Simon Gould|Short||||||
|_MADtv_|Indian|1 episode||||||
|2003|_10-8: Officers on Duty_|Gang Member|1 episode|||||
|2003-2004|_The Tonight Show with Jay Leno_|Various Characters||||||
|rowspan=7|2004|_The Florist_|Masood|Short||||
|_Jimmy Kimmel Live!_|Iraqi Simon Cowell|1 episode||||||
|_Adventures in Homeschooling_|Baliotis|Short||||||
|_NCIS_|Simi_|1 episode||||||
|_Nip/Tuck_|Dr. Hamir Gindi_|1 episode||||||
|_Jihad_|Mohammad|Short||||||
|_One Night Stand Up_|Mahesh Suresh|Short||||||
|rowspan=6|2005|_Gilmore Girls_|Patel Chandrasekhar|2 episodes||||
|_The Comeback_|Greg Narayan|2 episodes||||||
|_Curb Your Enthusiasm_|Waiter|1 episode||||||
|_Cold Case_|Malvinder Khatani - 1999, 2005|1 episode||||||
|_Love, Inc._|Patrick|2 episodes||||||
|_Family Guy_|Hindu Man / Wedding Priest|Voice 1 episode||||||
|rowspan=3|2006|_The Minor Accomplishments of Jackie Woodman_|Kai|1 episode||||
|_Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip_|Fred|2 episode||||||
|_Hannah Montana_|Sanjay|1 episode||||||
|2006-2007|_Campus Ladies_|Abdul|20 episodes|||||
|2007|_The Winner_|Richard|5 episodes|||||
|2008|_Hollywood Residential_|IRS Agent Tom Scully|Voice 1 episode Uncredited|||||
|rowspan=2|2009|_How I Met Your Mother_|Richard Greenleaf|1 episode||||
|_Wizards of Waverly Place_|Alien|1 episode||||||
|rowspan=2|2010|_Zeke and Luther_|Dex Bratner|1 episode||||
|_Svetlana_|Farhad Golastani|1 episode||||||
|2008-2010|_American Dad!_|Achmed / Crowd Member / John Leguizamo / Various Characters|Voice|||||
|2010|_Modern Family_|Dale|1 episode|||||
|rowspan=2|2011|_The Paul Reiser Show_|Amir|1 episode||||
|_Love Bites_|Aram|1 episode||||||
|2008-2011|__|Cyrus|13 episodes|||||
|2011-2016|_Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness_|Crane|Voice Replacing David Cross|||||
|2013|2 Broke Girls|Amir|1 episode|||||
|2013-2016|_Turbo FAST_|Skidmark, Tito|Voice Replacing Ben Schwartz and Michael Peña|||||
|2018|LA to Vegas|Alan|14 episodes|||||
|2020|_Bosch_|Detective Klein|2 episodes|||||
|2022|Ghosts|Director Daniel|1 episode|||||
|2024||_Hazbin Hotel_|Alastor|Voice Replacing Edward Bosco||||
|2025||_Hazbin Hotel Season 2_|Alastor|8 Episodes||||

## Video games

|style="background: #B0C4DE;"|Year|style="background: #B0C4DE;"|Title|style="background: #B0C4DE;"|Role|style="background: #B0C4DE;"|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|2001|_The Sims Hot Date_|Sim|Voice|||||
|rowspan=5|2006|_Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers_||Voice||||
|_Titan Quest_||Voice||||||
|_Company of Heroes_||Voice||||||
|_Splinter Cell: Double Agent_|Additional Characters|Voice||||||
|_The Sopranos: Road to Respect_|Additional Characters|Voice||||||
|2007|_Titan Quest: Immortal Throne_||Voice|||||
|2011|_Kung Fu Panda 2_|rowspan=2|Crane|rowspan=2|Voice Replacing David Cross and Drew Massey|||
|2015|_Kung Fu Panda: Showdown of Legendary Legends_|||||||

## Further Information

- Official website
- Amir’s fandom wiki

## Infobox (actor)

- **name**: Amir Talai
- **birth place**: San Francisco, California, U.S.
- **nationality**: American
- **occupation**: Actor, singer, voice artist, writer, activist
- **spouse**: Nina Manni (married 2011-present)