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Joey Rasdien

Full / Real Name: Yusuf Rasdien
Born: 22 April 1976 (49 years old)
Gender: Male

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Bio

Joey Rasdien is a South African comedian, writer and actor best known as a writer and performer on the SABC1 sketch comedy series Pure Monate Show, from 2003-2004.

He currently stars as Ben Rasdien in his first television sitcom, Rasdien, which premiered on SABC2 on Friday 5 November, 2010. He created, co-produced, co-wrote and stars in the series.

He also stars in the SABC2 variety comedy show Colour TV, in 2011.

Born in Johannesburg, Rasdien grew up in Riverlee, Mayfair, Asbury, Coronationville and Eldorado Park. He attended Coronationville High school in Johannesburg and achieved a Bachelor of Commerce degree at the Rand Afrikaans University, subsequently renamed to the University of Johannesburg.

After graduating he landed a job at Alexander Forbes as a financial advisor and front manager, which included high-level fund management. At the urging of his wife he quit his job in 2002 to launch a comedy career.

He started making his name in comedy clubs like the Blues Room, 88, Funny Bones, Dachs, Horror Café, Cool Runnings and Tanz Café amongst others. Thereafter he began booking regular comedy gigs at the casino resorts Morula Sun and Carnival City.

He was invited to perform on 5FM’s Beach Tour early on and went on to perform at the two-week Ha–Ha Comedy Festival at the Playhouse Theatre in Durban.

Since then he has performed at the Heavyweight Comedy Jams, Blacks Only, the Let Durban Laugh Festival, the University of Pretoria Festival and the Oppikoppi Rock Festival amongst others.

He was also invited to perform at South Africa’s biggest and most prestigious comedy event, the Cape Town International Comedy Festival, where the cream of the country’s comedy acts get to perform alongside top international acts for three weeks.

He has performed at Yuk Yuks comedy club in Toronto, Canada and in Dubai.

His experience in the finance sector as a personal financial advisor gives him an edge when relating to corporate audiences, making him a sought after compere/entertainer/comedian at corporate functions.

Corporate clients that he has performed for include SAB Miller, Spoornet, FNB, Sasol, Volkswagen, Standard Bank, Momentum Life and Vodacom, amongst many others.

His forays in stand-up comedy quickly led to work on television. His first appearances were on the Phat Joe Show, the Quickies, Jerry Springer's Saturday Night, the Comedy Showcase and the interactive game show Play TV, on SABC3.

His career began taking off when he was commissioned to host his own game show, Go For It, on SABC2 and was chosen to be one of the presenters of the M-Net comedy series Laugh Out Loud.

However it was the cult sketch comedy series the Pure Monate Show on SABC1 that significantly raised his profile, with the show attracting millions of viewers nationwide.

These performances attracted the attention of the advertising industry and Joey has since been approached by several agencies to feature in various above and below the line campaigns.

This work includes having been featured in commercials for Cell C, KFC, Standard Bank, Momentum, Department of Health, Sanlam and Virgin Mobile. He was also chosen to be the face of the ICC Cricket World Cup Campaign.

Work on the big screen followed with his movie debut in the South African-produced feature film Dollars and White Pipes (2005), in which he played one of the leads. He then teamed up with veteran comedy actor Bill Flynn and also acted in the full length feature, Running Riot.

He rejoined with the Pure Monate Show team of Kagiso Lediga, David Kibuuka, Kim Engelbrecht and director John Barker in making and acting in the 2006 movie Bunny Chow.

Rasdien is a Muslim and has a son, Hakeem Rasdien, born in 2002. His wife died in 2007.

In 2010 he created the sitcom Rasdien for SABC2 in which he stars as Ben Rasdien, a successful motivational speaker climbing the status ladder in South Africa.

Joey was the ninth host of the Comedy Central series Comedy Central Presents... Live at Parker's, in 2013.



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