Nabil Shaban Explained

Birth Date:1953 2, df=y
Birth Place:Amman, Jordan
Occupation:Actor, writer
Children:1

Nabil Shaban (born 12 February 1953)[1] is a Jordanian-British actor and writer. He co-founded Graeae—a theatre group which promotes disabled[2] performers. He's best known as the recurring villain Sil in Doctor Who.

Early years and career

Shaban was born in Amman, Jordan, with brittle bone disease osteogenesis imperfecta.[3] He was sent to England for medical care, where he grew up in a series of hospitals and residential homes.[4] He studied at the University of Surrey in the late 1970s and contributed to the Students' Union newspaper "Bare Facts". In 1997, Shaban was awarded an honorary doctorate by the university for services in the promotion of Disability Arts.

One of his most memorable television roles was that of the reptilian alien Sil in the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who.[5] Shaban played Sil in two serials: Vengeance on Varos (1985) and Mindwarp (1986), and created Sil's laugh. He reprised the role in the Big Finish audio dramas Mission to Magnus (2009) and Antidote to Oblivion (2013), both again written by Philip Martin. Shaban again played Sil in 2019 in Reeltime Pictures' web series production of Sil and the Devil Seeds of Arodor (2019), again written by Philip Martin.

He has appeared in several films, including Born of Fire (1983), City of Joy (1992), Derek Jarman's Wittgenstein (1993), Gaias børn (1998), and Children of Men (2006), and has also worked as part of the Crass Collective.[6] In 2011, he played the Roman emperor Constantius II at the National Theatre in Ibsen's Emperor and Galilean.[7]

In 2003 he made a TV documentary titled The Strangest Viking (part of Channel 4's Secret History series), in which Shaban explored the possibility that Viking chieftain Ivar the Boneless may have had osteogenesis imperfecta, the same condition he himself has.[8] Shaban has also published a trilogy of Ivarr the Boneless screenplays on Kindle, representing the Viking chieftain as a disabled Danish prince with brittle bones and unable to walk.

Shaban was nominated Best Actor in Scottish theatre in 2005, by the Critics' Awards for Theatre in Scotland (CATS), for his role as Mack the Knife in Bertolt Brecht's Threepenny Opera, a Theatre Workshop (Edinburgh) production.[9] Shaban lost out to rival nominee David Tennant, who was about to become the Tenth Doctor in Doctor Who.

Shaban's play The First To Go premièred in May 2008, produced by Edinburgh's Benchtours Theatre Company in association with Sirius Pictures. It opened at the Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh on 23 May and toured to the Tron Theatre, Glasgow; the Byre Theatre, St Andrews and Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield.[10]

Credits

TV documentaries

TV drama

Radio/audio

Feature films

Producer/director/writer

Further reading

External links

Notes and References

  1. http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/589316 Profile
  2. Web site: Miles-Wildin . Nicky . Disability and... Graeae with Nabil Shaban . Disability Arts Online . 11 June 2021.
  3. Web site: BFI Screenonline: Shaban, Nabil . Screenonline . 3 June 2021.
  4. https://www.unfinishedhistories.com/interviews/interviewees-r-z-3/nabil-shaban/ Profile
  5. Web site: Blair . Andrew . Doctor Who: 50 noteworthy villains . Den of Geek . 4 December 2015 . 11 June 2021.
  6. News: Then and Now - From the Archive TLS . 11 June 2021 . The TLS.
  7. News: Taylor . Paul . Emperor and Galilean, National Theatre: London . https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220618/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/reviews/emperor-and-galilean-national-theatre-london-2298752.html . 18 June 2022 . subscription . live . 11 June 2021 . The Independent . 23 October 2011.
  8. News: Short and to the point: Culture; The Guardian . The Guardian . 13 June 2003 . 3 June 2021 . Banks-Smith . Nancy .
  9. News: Correspondent . A Scotland . Scots writers return to form in the theatre awards . 11 June 2021 . The Times . 16 May 2005.
  10. News: Fisher . Mark . The First to Go: Theatre . 11 June 2021 . . 2 June 2008.

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