Kayvan Novak

“I have been 'absorbing' people - their voices, their mannerisms - all my life, to the point where I am a sort of Frankenstein of different people. My own speaking voice is, in fact, a mixture of how my two best mates speak, because they are cool, and I am not.”

“I had to fool the world into accepting me. I didn't seem to fit the mould of my idols.”

“I was born in London! I'm as Western as you get.”

“I don't worry about offending people - I think most people are a lot more robust than some other people give them credit for.”

“I look at my early career, and you know, when I left drama school, for a young Asian actor, you could either play a doctor on 'Holby City,' or you could play a terrorist in 'Spooks' and get to wear a nice shiny suit.”

“My first love is doing my own comedy stuff.”

“Why did Barry Humphries play Dame Edna for so many years? Why is Steve Coogan still doing Alan Partridge? Because there are just one or two characters they love doing. I'm lucky enough to have six that I'm crazy about.”

“When I do an impression of someone or when I am pretending to be someone else, something freaky happens: I feel the person I am mimicking behind my eyeballs. Their head is sitting perfectly inside mine, helping me project a false self out on to the world. And it's not always a choice.”

“My signature dish is a khoresht fesenjan. It's a stew with pomegranate and walnuts.”

“What I would say about the Trump travel ban is there goes my Hollywood career!”

“Thank God for my imagination. For my abilities to mimic.”

“Zayn is a cool name.”

“I was born in London. In a lot of ways I'm English, but I have this Iranianness, this culture instilled by my parents, by my family.”

“Years ago, I was watching a debate on Fox News, when I thought, 'These guys are basically like pranksters, they bring the people in and wind them up.' I was like, 'That's what I do!'”

“I think a lot of comedians are desperate to show their serious side, but I got that off my chest early on in my career.”

“I put my parents through mini hell with my laziness and poor grades, so I love making them laugh when they see me on television. When I work, I'm always thinking, 'Would my mother find this funny?' The belly-laugh jokes will hit her every time.”

“My pranks have never been about getting a negative reaction. They've always been a tolerance test for the person I'm engaging with.”

“As an ethnic actor, I still feel I can't be in 'Downton Abbey' or in period dramas.”

“The second series of 'Fonejacker' almost killed me. It was incredibly intense.”

“I've never sat down and written jokes. I wouldn't know how to.”