Aladdin Ullah has been pioneering the past decade as one of the very first South Asians to perform stand-up comedy on national television on networks such as: HBO, Comedy Central, MTV, BET, and PBS. Co-founder and host of the multi-ethnic stand-up show Colorblind, which Mel Watkins of The New York Times hailed as “hilarious, thought provoking and ground breaking.”
Theater: Member of Joseph Papp’s Public Theater’s Inaugural Emerging Writers group where he wrote/developed Indio during the Spotlight Series and workshops at Joe’s Pub, The IAAC (Indo-American Arts Council) Playwright in Residence-Lark Play Development Center-NY, New York Theater Workshop Residency at Dartmouth, Halal Brothers directed by Liesel Tommy (The Labyrinth’s Barn Series at Public Theater). Aladdin has had numerous staged readings/workshops of his plays at New York Theater Workshop, Cape Cod Theater Project, Classical Theater of Harlem, Lark Play Development Center, Shakespeare in Paradise Festival (Bahamas) Labyrinth, and 1 Solo Festival.
Television: appeared in several commercials as an actor and voiceover artist, Uncle Morty’s Dub Shack (IATV – Telly award for best comedy series), Desis:South Asians in NY (PBS).
Film: Professor Gautaum in American Desi, voiced several characters in the award winning animated film Sita Sings The Blues -“astonishingly original”- Roger Ebert (Best Animated Feature – Berlin and Tribeca film festivals, Spirit nominee).
Member of the Joseph Papp’s Public Theater’s 2008 Inaugural Emerging Writers Group
2009 IAAC (Indo American Arts Council) Playwright in Residence at The Lark Play Development Center.
Grants: Aladdin is a Recipient of the Paul Robeson development grant to produce a documentary called In search of Bengali Harlem which inspired the recent book Bengali Harlem (Harvard Press) by Vivek Bald.
Click Below to hear Aladdin describing how he came up with the show Dishwasher Dreams – discussing growing up in his old neighborhood in East Harlem as well his dad arriving in New York during the 1940’s in pursuit of the American Dream. This lead to the book “Bengali Harlem written by Vivek Bald.
