We mostly know him for his work as a TV presenter, but now Baz Ashmawy is taking the leap into acting and writing, with his self-created drama Faithless. He talks to Janice Butler about the sacrifices he made for the show and why he struggled with ethnic identity definitions for so long.
"I never get nervous but I was so nervous today. It feels like a long time coming and you start to think everything; maybe I was mad doing this, maybe people are going to think it’s sh*t, because it’s edgy and I pushed it a bit, but I wanted to shock people," says TV presenter, writer and actor Baz Ashmawy of his latest project Faithless; a black comedy that he has written and is starring in.
I’m sitting down to chat to him in the Lighthouse Cinema in Dublin’s Smithfield, just after two episodes of the show have been screened to cast, crew, family, friends and media.
You can sense Baz was nervous as he walked into the cinema and sat in the front row, his trademark white curly hair a beacon for an audience curious to see what Baz the writer and actor is capable of with a show he describes as his "baby."
Each episode was met with rapturous applause and all Baz can do now is wait to see what the general public think of a comedy about a mixed ethnicity Irish family who are navigating grief following the sudden death of mother, Tracy.
"It won’t be everyone’s cup of tea; my mum isn’t the biggest fan of it, a bit too strong for her, it’s not her type of comedy. But she still lit a candle for me and wished me all the best. She’s always my biggest supporter," laughs Baz of his mother Nancy, who was made famous in the hit show 50 Ways to Kill Your Mammy.
We find a corner in the cinema to continue our conversation; Baz is mobbed by cast members and well-wishers coming up to shake his hand and thank him for the experience. His wife Tanya, sister Mahy, and daughter Hanna are also on hand and he’s emotional with the weight of the occasion.
Following the success of the Emmy-winning 50 Ways to Kill Your Mammy, which first aired in 2014, Baz’s career has gone from strength to strength. Not willing to wait for jobs to come to him, he carved out his own path, writing and producing shows like Baz: The Lost Muslim, All Bets Are Off, Wingman and most recently, fronting the feel-good transformation show, DIY SOS: The Big Build Ireland.
"It’s been incredible," he says, reflecting on the last ten years. "You start off on TV and after a while you think, maybe I could produce stuff and then that evolves into something else. Sometimes when you’re a presenter in Ireland, you could be waiting for work to come your way, so why would I wait, if I can create work myself. It’s just how I’m built; I’ve a family and I want to provide for them."
Before his TV and radio career, Baz had ambitions to be an actor; he dropped out of drama school when he was younger and always wanted to revisit the craft, but was aware that at this stage, people might find it hard to separate him from Baz the TV presenter.
"When you’re a TV presenter, people just identify you as Baz and it’s hard to get them to see you differently. People know you so well from the telly and my aim was that after two or three episodes, they forget Baz and just see Sam, so that’s the challenge. But I wrote it to be in it; I wanted to act and it’s not even just to act; I wanted to act in a certain type of role, so that’s why I created my own thing."
Faithless was almost six years in the making, the story of a family: dad Sam and his three daughters, dealing with the sudden death of their mother and matriarch, mourning in a very Irish way, but also exploring what it means to them and their extended family to be of mixed origin and respecting each other’s cultural norms.
It’s funny, dark, emotional, with of-the-moment themes, but Baz insists he wasn’t trying to be political, just writing what he knows.
"A lot of people are saying to me it’s very relevant now but I wrote this five years ago. It’s not written with any messaging, it’s just about a family going through grief. They just happen to be a mixed race family and that’s my world: I’m half Egyptian, Tanya is half Serbian, my mum’s Catholic, my sister is Muslim; that’s my world. It might be very different to other people but to me, that mix is very normal."
Baz Ashmawy, who was born in Libya to an Egyptian dad and Irish mum, grew up in Rathfarnham, raised by his mother Nancy and grandmother. He admits that in his youth he struggled with his identity; feeling he didn’t fully fit in.
"When you’re mixed race, you’re always a little lost for identity. You go to Egypt and you’re not really Egyptian and when I was younger in Ireland, I didn’t feel Irish, but I do now."
At what stage in his life did he feel Irish? "It’s a sense of belonging; everyone wants to belong. It’s very hard if you’re mixed race and people keep telling you you’re not Irish. That’s kind of hurtful and upsetting, because you feel Irish yourself and feel passionate about the country. So, at some stage, you just go, this is who I am, I’m me and I’m Irish so whatever other people say, I don’t care. As a teen, you don’t have that self-acceptance, but you get there as an adult and I’m proud of it," he replies.
How does he feel about how immigration in Ireland is represented in media?
"Ireland is in a very difficult space at the moment and it’s not just Ireland, it’s globally. There’s a huge wealth divide and people are wondering how they have nothing and how they’re going to survive, so they’re looking for reasons and someone to blame," he answers.
"I wasn’t trying to make a political statement with this show; I know people will say, what’s that lefty bullsh*t but it wasn’t about that. But if you ask some of the cast from this show, Suzie (Seweify), Amir (El-Masry), they’ll tell you that parts like this don’t exist on Irish television. Why don’t they exist? You’re not represented. Just because there’s an ad on TV with a Chinese person or a Black person, that’s not representation. That’s tokenism and I’m not here for tokenism, I’m here to represent," he adds passionately.
Baz admits that writing and making the show became "all-obsessing" for him and that it required a lot of time away from his family. He has two young daughters (Hanna and Mahy) with partner Tanya and she has four children from a previous relationship. He credits her and the kids for supporting his dreams. "It was probably more than I expected but I was very lucky with Tanya at home. She just took over because I essentially disappeared.
"The show was my baby for a long time, so I put everything into it. By the time I got home in the evenings, the kids would be in bed. Then I worked weekends and I was filming other shows in-between, so that whole last year was kind of crazy. That’s what it takes. I’m so lucky that Tanya thinks I’m a feckin lunatic, but I have a woman who supports me like that and lets me indulge. But I’m trying at the moment to make up for that, I did miss a lot last year with the family, it’s a big sacrifice. It’s so hard on the other person because it’s thankless; I get accolades and premiers and what does she get – nothing, only what I say to her," he says, pausing to gather his thoughts.
He also acknowledges his daughter Hanna, who is at the screening to support him. "It’s really nice seeing Hanna here today. She’s so proud and that means a lot to me because I missed a lot of time with her."
Baz and Tanya have also welcomed two granddaughters in the last three years, with his step-daughter Charlotte becoming a mum to two little girls; Lilly and Marlee. He gushes about the role of granddad.
"It’s great. It’s such a lovely relationship, so sweet. Charlotte’s doing so well too, she’s a great mum. We’re not overly hands on: we see them when we see them and we’re delighted but then we hand them back," he laughs – surely the best part of being a grandparent!
With his baby Faithless having flown the nest, Baz is back with the presenting gigs, with a new season of Best Place to Be in the works and his "favourite show", DIY SOS coming back for another season of emotional rollercoaster stories.
So, TV presenter, writer and actor ticked off: what’s his next notion? "I’d like to write something again, a feature film maybe. I’ve a couple of ideas, one that I’ll start writing soon I think. Then I’m looking forward to doing DIY SOS again. I miss that. We normally do it in the summertime. It’s good for the soul, that one."
