He’s the star and creator of the BBC hit Juice, but life has thrown him a few curveballs along the way. He opens up about his years of hard graft, his mum’s big acting break, and why things are getting weird with his therapistI don’t know if I’ve even really celebrated it to be honest, man.” Sitting in a north London bar on a boiling hot evening, resplendent in a matching silk shirt and shorts combo, Mawaan Rizwan is contemplating his life post-Bafta. In May last year, he won best male comedy performance for Juice, his gloriously surrealist BBC series in which he stars as Jamma, a clownish manchild with a bowl cut navigating a chaotic life alongside his dysfunctional family and buttoned-up older boyfriend.In the end, after a few sips of his negroni, Rizwan – whose CV also includes appearances on Taskmaster, Live at the Apollo and Doctor Who, plus a slew of comedy songs about racism, toxic masculinity and skiing’s lack of socioeconomic diversity – pinpoints one way his life has changed; his therapist upped his fee. Rizwan speculates that it might have happened after his viral acceptance speech, in which the surprised and elated actor recounted a prior session’s focus on the dangers of relying on external forms of validation. Continue reading...