Celebrity Traitors' Nick Mohammed: From his Ted Lasso alter-ego Mr Swallow and his wife - all you need to know
He's also currently appearing in Slow Horses season 5Nick Mohammed is one of 19 British stars appearing in the BBC’s Celebrity Traitors – but who is he?
Celebrity Traitors has officially arrived, with an all-star cast tackling missions, murder and roundtable banishments with aplomb.
There’s plenty of familiar faces in the cast, including Nick, who is also currently on screens in Slow Horses season 5, playing mayor of London candidate Zahar Jaffrey.
While he tackles his new Faithful role, we’ve taken a look back at his other TV roles, from Ted Lasso to Mr Swallow, and delved into his home life, sharing details about his wife, kids and famous friends.
How old is Nick Mohammed and where is he from?
Nick Mohammed is 45 years old. Full name Nicholas George Mohammed, he was born in Leeds, West Yorkshire, to a Cyprus-born GP mother and a Trinidad-born father who worked in law.
Nick admitted he wasn’t sporty as a child but was “dragged” along to football matches at Leeds United. His passion instead was magic, receiving his first magic set aged four. And it’s ultimately what led him to a career in the performing arts.”I always enjoyed performing,” he said on the DISH podcast with Angela Hartnett and Nick Grimshaw. “So I’d do that, and then as soon as I turned like sixteen I’d do like hotels, weddings and bar mitzvahs.”
Nick studied geophysics at Durham University and followed it up with a PhD in seismology at the University of Cambridge. He had intentions of becoming a geophysicist, with comedy always being “Plan B”. However, after successfully auditioning for the acting society Footlights at Cambridge, he switched career plans. “When I joined Footlights, it ignited an inner fire and made me dare to believe that a career in comedy might be possible,” he told the Observer.
Post-university, Nick then spent a decade doing shows at Edinburgh Fringe, appearing as his famous comedy character Mr Swallow.
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Why is Nick Mohammed called Mr Swallow?
Nick Mohammed has played a lot of characters, but his longest-running role is that of Mr Swallow. First conceived for an Edinburgh Fringe show, Nick has toured extensively as alter-ego Mr Swallow. He even appeared as him for a brief sketch, wearing roller skates, at last year’s BAFTA Film Awards ceremony.
“The character is based on a school teacher,” he revealed to The Guardian. “She had the same voice and more or less the same attitude as Mr Swallow. So it kind of started out about 25 years ago.”
Nick describes Mr Swallow as “northern, bombastic and a clueless megalomaniac”. As for the name, it comes from the fact that the teacher in question used to swallow a lot in between sentences.
The comedian has previously appeared as Mr Swallow on 8 out of 10 Cats does Countdown, sitting alongside Susie Dent in Dictionary Corner.
He’s also toured the UK as Mr Swallow in a number of different stand-up shows include The Very Best & Worst of Mr. Swallow, Dracula, Houdini and A Christmas Carol-ish. All written, conceived by and starring Nick.
Nick Mohammed movies and TV shows: What else has he been in?
Nick Mohammed has starred in a number of movies and TV shows. However, he is perhaps most-known for his role as Nathan ‘Nate’ Shelley in Ted Lasso.
He starred in all three seasons of the hit Apple TV+ comedy, with his character transitioning from an unsung hero to a villain, finishing with a redemption arc in season 3. He started out as the kit manager at Richmond FC, nicknamed ‘Nate the Great’ by Ted. However, he later absconded and ended up working as the rival head coach at West Ham United.
Nick was twice nominated for an Emmy in the Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series category in 2021 and 2022 for his role in Ted Lasso.
Nick has also appeared in the ITV drama Douglas is Cancelled and Disney+ fantasy series Renegade Nell. Plus sitcoms Miranda, Fresh Meat, Stath Lets Flats and Mandy.
He additionally co-wrote and starred in the Sky One show Intelligence. Currently he is on screens portraying London mayoral candidate Zahar Jaffrey in Slow Horses season 5.
Nick Mohammed has also starred on the big screen in films such as Bridget Jones’s Baby, Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie and Prime Video comedy Deep Cover. He also voiced the character of Piglet in Christopher Robbin and lent his vocals to the scientist Dr Fry in Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget.
Last year, Nick also appeared as himself in BBC One’s Inside No.9 and competed on the seventeenth series of Taskmaster, where he finished in fifth place.
Are Nick Mohammed and David Schwimmer friends?
Yes, Nick Mohammed and Friends icon David Schwimmer are good friends, having worked together on Sky One comedy Intelligence.
The two first met in 2014 when Nick was working on a TV pilot for Channel 4 with Gavin and Stacey star Julia Davis. The show never aired but Nick and David stayed in touch after.
A huge Friends fan himself, Nick said it was exciting to first spend time with David. “It was a thrill, and quite daunting to get to meet him and work with him,” he said in an interview with Radio Times. “But now, because we’ve worked together so solidly and consistently with Intelligence, we are just mates now, which is quite a strange thing.”
The two actors played mismatched co-workers who are thrown together at an intelligence and security organisation combatting cybercrime. Mohammed played rambling British tech analyst Joseph Harries while Schwimmer portrayed pompous American NSA agent Jerry Bernstein. Intelligence ran for two seasons on Sky One.
Nick Mohammed’s wife: Who is he married to?
Nick Mohammed has been married to Becka Mohammed for over a decade. She works as a music teacher and is the director of music at the school she works at.
“That’s how we met, we met through playing in the orchestra together at university,” he told Kelly Clarkson on her chat show in 2024. The two both attended Durham University and studied at St Aidan’s College.
Becka and Nick tied the knot back in 2014, with Nick taking to social media to confirm the news. “Got married last weekend, this is my niece’s impression of the events,” he wrote on X with a picture, captioned: “WHAT IS GOING ON NEAR MY WIFE’S CROTCH?”
Nick credits his wife as being one of the funniest people in his life. According to him, she makes him laugh everyday and he even steals some of her jokes.
In June this year, he shared a “soppy” post on his Instagram admitting that he wouldn’t be able to have the career he loves if it wasn’t for her. “It’s always worth reiterating that absolutely none of it would have been remotely possible without the endless and phenomenal support of @becka_mohammed. Practically, emotionally, hysterically! She is quite frankly a superhero.”
Nick Mohammed family: What are the names of his children?
Nick Mohammed has three children in total with his wife Becka. The couple share two sons, named Finn and Arthur, as well as a daughter named Annie.
Nick likes to keep his children out of the public eye. He has, however, opened up on the joys and testing parts of parenthood.
“It’s mad, but wonderful. Like all new parents, we had zero clue,” he told The Guardian in 2023. “My wife is a teacher, so we thought: “It won’t be that difficult.” Obviously it was – and still is – exhausting.”
How tall is Nick Mohammed?
In an interview with The Skinny, Nick Mohammed confirmed that he is 164 cm tall. This equates to around 5 ft 4 inches.
Can Nick Mohammed play the Violin?
Yes, Nick Mohammed is musical like his wife and plays both the violin and the piano.
Nick showed off his violin skills in an episode of Ted Lasso, where his character Nate plays the instrument in a particularly poignant scene.
“I can’t remember what episode, episode 10, maybe season 3,” he recollected while on the Kelly Clarkson show. “There’s a bit where Nate goes back to his family home and finds his old violin and starts playing it. And Jason [Sudeikis] knew I played violin and sorted of wrote that in for me.
“So it was me playing and then my wife was actually accompanying, she was on piano in the background. It was really nice and sweet.”
Nick Mohammed in Celebrity Traitors
Comedian, actor and writer Nick Mohammed is appearing in the first season of Celebrity Traitors currently airing on BBC One.
“I decided to take part because I absolutely adore the show, and always have done,” he said ahead of the launch. “There was no way I was going to give up an opportunity like this! I’ve always loved games like this and to hang out with such a wonderful, fascinating bunch too – what a privilege.”
While he’s appeared as many different characters on screen, Nick admitted that he’ll be 100% himself in the castle and won’t rely too heavily on his acting skills. “The idea of keeping up a pretense for that long is interesting but I don’t know if it’s even really possible. It would be too exhausting, surely.”
The Ted Lasso star added that he has no game plan or strategy on how to behave and is worried about being serious when the occasion calls for it, as he “often gets the giggles”.
“You don’t want to draw too much attention to yourself or make yourself a target. There’s an element of wanting to blend into the background a little bit, whilst not being too much of a wallflower. Otherwise, people will think you’re deliberately hiding. It’s a fine line to tread.”
Nick’s fellow Traitors cast members include Alan Carr, Cat Burns, Celia Imrie, Charlotte Church, Clare Balding, David Olusoga, Joe Marler, Joe Wilkinson, Jonathan Ross, Kate Garraway, Lucy Beaumont, Mark Bonnar, Niko Omilana, Ruth Codd, Stephen Fry, Tameka Empson and Tom Daley. Paloma Faith has already been ‘murdered’ by Traitor Alan Carr.
