Nick Mohammed has been faithful to the stage for a very long time; his helium-voiced comedy character Mr Swallow has been a fixture at comedy venues for 16 years. But he reckons he landed the gig hosting the Oliviers, the biggest night in theatre, because of a strong performance elsewhere: The Celebrity Traitors. There, he sleuthed his way to the end, almost taking down eventual winner Alan Carr, before falling at the final hurdle. “I’m sure Celebrity Traitors is one of the biggest, if not the single reason I’m getting to host the Oliviers,” the funnyman tells me. “I could have gone out on day one or two, and then I probably wouldn’t be doing it.”
Mohammed is an inspired choice, picking up the mantle from Beverley Knight, Billy Porter, and his Ted Lasso co-star Hannah Waddingham, who hosted in 2023 and 2024. In the past two decades, he’s become one of the most reliable comedy actors, making guest appearances in myriad 2010s sitcoms, including Miranda, Life’s Too Short and Stath Lets Flats, before creating his own in 2020: Intelligence, co-starring David Schwimmer. That same year, Mohammed shot to global recognition playing football-kit man turned callous manager Nathan “Nate” Shelley in Ted Lasso – and provided the teeth-itchingly twee series, one of the biggest small-screen hits of the last 10 years, with its edgiest character.
But he’s hoping the Oliviers go better than his last award-show appearance. The actor took bombastic magician Mr Swallow to the Bafta Film Awards in 2024, truncating his 20-minute set down to three minutes. He barely had time to warm up and fire off a handful of high-pitched jokes before rollerblading off stage; Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling looked bemused. “It went dreadfully,” Mohammed recalls. “As soon as I came out on skates, off the back of someone doing a serious speech about representation in the film industry, people were literally like, ‘What is going on?’ And rightly so.” He hides a wince. “I would do it again in a heartbeat, but it was never going to work. There was never going to be a world where it could.”
Today, Mohammed spots me in the restaurant where we’re meeting and bounds over to our table, a gregarious grin on his face. There’s a lightness about him, and he shows no sign of nerves about the forthcoming job, which will put him in the spotlight as plain old Nick. Nerves would be valid, though; this year, more eyes will be on the ceremony than ever before. It’ll be televised on the BBC for the first time since 2003, in celebration of its 50th anniversary, and while that thought might make Mohammed gulp, he thinks he’ll be hosting to a friendlier room.
“Of all those ceremonies, it’s a nice one, because I think the theatre industry is more wholesome. Film and television ones tend to be a little bit more competitive. It feels like there’s a lot more ego in those worlds – and frankly, people aren’t being paid nearly as much as massive stars, so it changes the dynamic in the room.”
Mohammed has previously shied away from being solely himself in his professional endeavours, including in 2024, when he finally agreed to take part in Channel 4 comedy institution Taskmaster. (For all of his pre-recorded segments, Mohammed dressed in full vampire regalia, makeup and all, as he felt “nervous” about being himself on screen.) But then he appeared on Celebrity Traitors – the first thing he’d ever done without hiding behind a character. He’s certain the show’s helped him to overcome his nerves, but says his hesitancy to accept such TV appearances mainly stems from “wanting to preserve” some of his mystery. He thinks other actors should follow suit.
“I’m relatively private as a person, and I think it was the desire not to give too much of myself away. I take a lot of value in the craft of acting. If you know too much about a person, sometimes when you see them in a role, you’re like, ‘I can still see that person in there.’”
He understands this is idealistic and can ultimately cost him jobs – especially now that studios favour putting well-known figures in the spotlight over lesser-known talent. “If you don’t have the TikTok or Instagram followers, you’re not going to get seen,” he declares. “It’s a mess. When I was with my old American agency, one of the first things that came up when you went to a client page on their website was a person’s number of followers. I found that a bit terrifying. But I also understand the business behind it. I’ve produced shows before, and you do think, ‘Well, I know people are going to watch this because this person’s connected to it.’”
In the end, Celebrity Traitors fans warmed to Mohammed’s composure and his ability to share his views without dominating roundtables. Unlike many of his co-stars, he only spoke when there was something important to say – in other words, a Traitors rarity. He escaped with his reputation intact, but says he ”wouldn’t be surprised” if someone got on the wrong side of viewers by losing their cool or speaking out of line, as “it’s such a high-stress situation”.
Mohammed isn’t a comedian who’s willing to sacrifice his morals for monetary gain at a time when some stand-up stars are increasingly targeting marginalised groups in their sets, from immigrants to the trans community. Stewart Lee recently highlighted that “there’s a positive financial value” to “creating offence”.
“I try to come at it from a pragmatic level. I think for all the woolliness surrounding what you can and can’t say, and whether cancel culture is a good thing or a bad thing, I’m like, first of all, is that an original take on that topic or a punch-down? The majority of the time, it’s just an obvious, easy joke, so I find it a shame because, from a creative point of view, that’s not exciting to me. Secondly, you can tell there are people who’ll be able to make fun of absolutely anything, and it will be funny depending on context and authenticity. It’s so obvious when it steps outside of those bounds and it’s just a gratuitous laugh. Everyone’s kidding themselves as to whether there’s a grey area; there is not – it’s just about whether you want to be a decent human being.”
How about world events? Is there a limit on the subjects comedians are allowed to poke fun at, or should they be granted carte blanche to make light of any incident, regardless of the time period? “When people say ‘too soon’, that is true. This is a nonsense thing to say, but with the musical Six [about the wives of Henry VIII], if you were related to someone who had their head chopped off and it was a year later, you’d be like, ‘What the f*** are you doing? Do you know how painful that was?’ I’d be pissed off.” OK, but when’s the cut-off point? “If it happened two weeks ago or last year, it’s probably not fine. Four hundred years later? Absolutely.”
A big smile crosses Mohammed’s face when he brings up SNL UK. It took its sweet time, but last month, the sketch show debuted a UK edition 50 years after starting in the US, with the crème de la crème of comedians from the Fringe circuit joining its lineup. For Mohammed, it was worth the wait. “I think it’s the best thing to have happened in British comedy since The Office. I honestly believe that. To be cynical about it, it’s a shame that it’s taken Americans to come in with a format and say, ‘Just do it like that.’ When I was starting out, there were so many production companies and channels wanting to emulate Saturday Night Live, and not having the guts to do it. But I think they’ve nailed it. I watched the first episode, and was literally emotional at the end when they all came out. If it was maybe 10 years ago, I would have killed for it.”
But the established Mohammed’s rising-star years are long behind him. It feels like the entertainment world is his oyster, now that his profile – and social media following (420k Insta followers, if you must know) – has been considerably raised. He’s rejected offers to bring Mr Swallow’s high-pitched tones to podcasts, but would love it if the character was given an old-fashioned six-part BBC sitcom. After presenting the Oliviers, Mohammed will continue to tour Mr Swallow this year. And if he’s returning in the fourth season of Ted Lasso, set to be released in the summer, he’s not telling. Meanwhile, his Hollywood career is on the up – he’ll soon co-star alongside James McAvoy and Julianne Moore in action film Cover.
If Mohammed is markedly staying in a variety of different lanes, this is by design. “It bothers me when I see actors who do one thing. They often do it brilliantly, but then I’m like, ‘Well, alright.’ I adore seeing Colin Firth and Jim Broadbent, because they bring a particular quality to a role that is very them, and the great thing about it is that it’s pure class, because they are the absolute pinnacle of what they do. But there are maybe some lesser actors, of which I count myself, where I’m like, ‘OK, my gimmick then has to be range.’” As far as gimmicks go, it’s a doozy.
The Olivier Awards 2026 will air Sunday (12 April) on BBC Two at 7pm
