Brian George - Mashpedia All-in-One Encyclopedia

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Brian George 'בריאן ג'ורג
George and his wife, at the red carpet ceremony for the 34th Annie Awards in 2007
Born	(1952-07-01) 1 July 1952 (age 60) Jerusalem, Israel
Occupation	Actor, voice actor
Years active	1975–present

Brian George (Hebrew: בריאן ג'ורג'‎; born 1 July 1952) is a British-Israeli actor and voice actor for Indian accents, who typically plays guest roles for characters of South Asian descent. Perhaps his most famous role is as Pakistani restaurateur Babu Bhatt on Seinfeld or as the New Delhi gynecologist father of Rajesh Koothrappali on The Big Bang Theory.

Early life [edit]

George was born in Jerusalem, Israel, to Jewish parents of Iraqi descent who had emigrated to Israel. His mother was born in India and his father was born in Lebanon^{[clarification needed]} but brought up in Bombay. A year after his birth, the family moved from Israel to London, and then to Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 1966. George is the youngest of four siblings.

He attended an all-boys school in London, but made the switch to a public co-ed high school when the family moved to Toronto. He attended the University of Toronto, where he was active in the university's theatre productions. George left before graduation and formed a theatre group; unsuccessful, he moved on to join the Second City, where he trained with John Candy, among others.

Television, voiceover and film work [edit]

George appeared as a United Nations secretary on Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. As he ages, George is increasingly cast in one-time guest roles as the father of a principal character; for example, as Julian Bashir's father in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Doctor Bashir, I Presume?," and on a recurring basis as Raj's father in The Big Bang Theory. In 2006 he landed a recurring role as Sasan's father Omid on the VH1 sitcom So NoTORIous.

He had appeared on numerous other sitcoms including Seinfeld, where he appeared in three episodes as Babu Bhatt, an immigrant who is deported to Pakistan because of Elaine Benes' failure to give Jerry Seinfeld his mail in time, which contained Babu's visa application. He returned in the series finale to testify that Jerry is a "bad man!...very, very, bad man! (wagging his finger)".

He had a recurring role as newsman "Hugh Persons" on Doctor, Doctor during the series' second season.

He made a one-time guest appearance in Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda in the first season as Wayist religious leader Vikram Singh Khalsa. This was developed by Robert Hewitt Wolfe who worked on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. He also appeared in One Tree Hill as Brooke's taxi driver when she went to launch her clothes in New York.

He has also done voiceover work in animated shows such as Batman: The Animated Series, Handy Manny, Kim Possible, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Batman Beyond, Justice League (voicing Parasite in style similar to the late Brion James (the first voice actor of Parasite), as well as portraying Morgan Edge and President George W. Bush), M.A.S.K., Invader Zim, and Jedi Master Ki-Adi Mundi in Season 2 of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. He has also appeared in videogames like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Baldur's Gate, Ultimate Spider-Man, Everquest II and Final Fantasy XIV. Early in his acting career, he was among the cast of 1985's The Care Bears Movie and made guest appearances in the Canadian television series The Edison Twins, The Littlest Hobo, Comedy Factory and King of Kensington.

He also took over the voice of Bob Fish in the Anglo-Canadian animated comedy series Bob and Margaret and The Inspector in the 1993 revival series of The Pink Panther.

He also made a small guest appearance in the second season of The Mentalist, in episode 16, entitled 'Code Red', he played a professor working at the Northern California Technology Institute. His most recent appearances include the role of Mr. Pashmutt on Desperate Housewives (in the 2005 episode "You Could Drive a Person Crazy"), Ali on American Dad! (in the 2005 episode "Stan of Arabia") and Captain Barbossa in Kingdom Hearts II and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (video game). He also appeared on The 4400 in the third season episode "The Starzl Mutation". Also appeared in the St. Valentine's Day episode of Grey's Anatomy as a carrier waiter in love with another patient, but ends up dying of complications towards the end of the episode.

He also voiced Sahin the Falcon and Stuart Black in Age of Empires III and is also the voice of Fareed "Freddie" Abdul Salaam (a taxi driver and informant) in the game True Crime: New York City. He plays a short tempered convenience store owner in the 2001 film Ghost World. He also plays the role of "Iqbal" in the 2006 film Employee Of The Month.

He played "Pushpop" an Indian ice cream vendor in the 2001 film Bubble Boy. He also played the culturally challenged (Sikh-Catholic-Muslim mix with Jewish in-laws) bartender who counselled the priest played by Ed Norton through a crisis of faith in the 2000 film "Keeping the Faith." In the 2008 indie romantic comedy "Shades of Ray" he plays the overbearing Pakistani father to a half-Pakistani, half-Caucasian Zachary Levi in the midst of questioning his prior policy of only dating white women.

He also was the foster father of Ricky in the television series The Secret Life of the American Teenager.

In The Penguins of Madagascar, Brian guest stars as the zoo doctor in "Needle Point", "I Was a Penguin Zombie", "Operation: Cooties" and "Love Hurts".

He also appeared on Disney Channel show That's So Raven as Dr. Sleevemore, a "psychic doctor" who treats Raven's vision-related problems. He appeared in 2 episodes. In the season 1 episode "Saving Psychic Raven", Raven starts attending his "Institute for Psychic Research", where she meets other teenage psychics. Raven decides not to go back to there at the end of the episode after an on-going feud between the psychics and Raven's friends. Dr. Sleevemore is neither seen nor mentioned again until the season 3 episode "Vision Impossible".

He also appeared on a Disney Channel show called Phineas and Ferb on the hour long special "Summer Belongs To You" as Uncle Sabu. And voiced as Mr. Kumar on Playhouse Disney show Handy Manny.