Bashir Salahuddin

Bashir Salahuddin (born July 6, 1976) is an American actor, writer, and comedian. Early life and education Salahuddin was born and raised in the South Side of Chicago, Illinois. His father is originally from Panama and moved to Chicago with his family when he was a child. His mother grew up on the West Side of Chicago. They met when they both were students at Southern Illinois University and converted to Islam in the early 1970s. His parents divorced in the early 2000s. Salahuddin grew up with three brothers and two sisters and has two younger siblings from his father's second marriage. Salahuddin's father worked as an airplane mechanic for Midway Airlines at Chicago Midway International Airport. As family members of an airline employee, the family was able to fly on many stand-by trips across the U.S. He credits his father with instilling in him what he refers to as the "immigrant work ethic". Salahuddin was a pre-medical student at Harvard University, graduating in 1998. He performed in several theater productions, including at the Hasty Pudding. He also met and became friends with Diallo Riddle, who would become his writing partner. In his junior year at Harvard, Salahuddin decided he wanted to be an actor and attended the Hangar Theater's training program. Career After graduating from Harvard, Salahuddin returned to Chicago and worked as a paralegal in order to save money to be able to move to Los Angeles. When he got to Los Angeles in the early 2000s, he worked as a PA at Warner Brothers and as a waiter. Not getting the work they wanted, Salahuddin and Riddle began making their own web videos. David Alan Grier saw their videos and hired them as a writing team on his show Chocolate News in 2008. Jimmy Fallon then asked them to join the writing staff of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and they moved to New York. They stayed on the show for four years.