Brian George

Brian George (born 1 July 1952) is an Israeli-English actor, voice artist, comedian and singer, best known for playing Pakistani restaurateur Babu Bhatt on Seinfeld and the Indian gynaecologist father of Raj Koothrappali on The Big Bang Theory.

George was born in Jerusalem on 1 July 1952, to Jewish parents of Baghdadi Jewish (Iraqi Jewish) descent, who had emigrated to Israel. His father was born in Lebanon, his mother, in India. A year after his birth, the family moved from Israel to London and then, in 1966, to Toronto, Ontario, Canada. 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

George appeared as a United Nations secretary on Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, 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 in So NoTORIous. George also did the voice of Bob Fish in the last two series of Bob and Margaret.

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. He also appeared in two episodes of Ellen as Ranjit, a member of the book club that gathered in Ellen's book shop.

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 (as musician turned gangster Jimmy "The Jazzman" Peake); Handy Manny; Kim Possible playing antagonist Duff Killigan, a Scotsman who uses exploding golf balls when attacking Kim and Ron Stoppable, Kim's sidekick; Avatar: The Last Airbender as Guru Pathik; Batman Beyond; Justice League (voicing Parasite (in a style similar to the first voice actor of Parasite), Morgan Edge and President George W. Bush), MASK, Invader Zim, and Jedi Master Ki-Adi Mundi in Season 2 of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. He has also appeared in video games like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Baldur's Gate, Ultimate Spider-Man, Mass Effect 3, 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 played a guru in the film Inspector Gadget where he is training with Inspector Gadget to control his gadgets and tells him to grab two balls with his expanding arm and Gadget does so, but instead, he accidentally grips the guru's testicles causing him to get a high-pitched voice. He is then hospitalised.

He also made a small guest appearance in the second season of The Mentalist in episode 16 entitled "Code Red" where 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: Part 2") 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. 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 diverse (Sikh-Catholic-Muslim mix with Jewish in-laws) bartender who counselled the priest played by Edward Norton through a crisis of faith in the 2000 film Keeping the Faith. In the 2008 indie romantic comedy Shades of Ray, he played 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", "Love Hurts", and "I Know Why the Caged Bird Goes Insane".

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", meeting other teenage psychics. Raven decides not to go back to there at the end of the episode after an ongoing 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 the Disney Channel show Phineas and Ferb on the hour long special "Summer Belongs To You" as Uncle Sabu, voiced Mr. Kumar on the Disney Junior show Handy Manny, and voiced a character on the Disney Channel show Mickey Mouse.

He regularly voiced several characters on DC Nation's Green Lantern: The Animated Series, including Appa Ali Apsa, LANOS, and Brother Warth.

He also appeared in the first episode of Beware the Batman, "Hunted", as the villain Professor Pyg, and in Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time as Sly's ancestor, Salim Al-Kupar.

In 2013, George took up a recurring role in Once Upon a Time in Wonderland as an unnamed prisoner who is later revealed to be the Sultan of Agrabah and father of the show's principal antagonist: Jafar.

He guest starred in SpongeBob SquarePants in the episode "Drive Happy" as Coupe.

He also had a featured role in the Uttera Singh-directed comedy short film Fanny Pack.

After 12 years, he reprised his role as Doctor Sleevmore in the That's So Raven spin-off Raven's Home for a three episode special.