Baz Ashmawy

Bazil Ashmawy, commonly known as Baz Ashmawy, is an Irish radio and television personality, whose TV show 50 Ways to Kill Your Mammy won the International Emmy Award for

According to an article in The Nationalist (Carlow), Ashmawy's mother Nancy is from Ballycoog, Ballycoog, Avoca, County Wicklow^[1] although Ashmawy was born in Libya and is part-Egyptian.^[2] He moved to Ireland at age eight and grew up in the Dublin suburb of Churchtown and attended CUS Leeson Street for a period of time.^[3]

Career

Ashmawy is best known^{[citation needed]} for 50 Ways to Kill Your Mammy^{[4][failed verification]} which was first broadcast on Sky 1. The show is based on Baz inserting his 71-year-old mother Nancy into various dare-devil situations, and documenting her typical Irish mammy reactions to the situations.^[5][6]

In November 2015 50 Ways to Kill Your Mammy won the

He appeared in Jason Byrne's award-winning prank series Anonymous. He later appeared numerous times on RTÉ One's flagship travel show No Frontiers before venturing into his own solo project Baz's Culture Clash on RTÉ Two, which he began filming in September 2008 and finished the following April,^[16] travelling the world to film it.^[17][18] It was aired during September and October 2009. It had initially been expected to air in March 2009.^[19] For the series Ashmawy visited a coven of witches in Kells, County Meath and underwent hypnosis to allow him to meet his Egyptian ancestors.^[20][19][21] Ashmaway also visited a haunted house with a group called "Leinster Paranormal".^[19] He also teamed up with a group of ghostbusters to visit the haunted Carlow Shopping Centre where a little girl and some former prisoners from the old county gaol were among the ghosts which were said to haunt the building.^[22] The episode in the shopping centre was filmed at night and in one incident a member of Ashmawy's film crew collapsed without explanation when his body was invaded.^[21] In another episode Ashmawy met a man whose diet consisted of roadkill, including badgers and cats.^[20] The series was poorly received. Irish Independent critic John Boland wrote of the first episode that it "gives a new meaning to the notion of meaninglessness", and questioned the purpose of a show where Ashmawy "grinned and grimaced his way through southern California in an unserious search of alternative therapies".^[23] Hilary Fannin wrote in The Irish Times that a later episode "investigated (well, that might be too strong a word for it – let's say glossed over) the world of the paranormal".^[24] Paul Whitington wrote in the Irish Independent that the subjects covered in the series were "new-age nonsense".^[25] His next project Baz's Extreme Worlds aired on 10 May 2010.

In addition to appearing on as television host, Ashmawy is an actor who has appeared in television dramas and other programmes.^[26] He has also appeared in a plays and short films.^[11] Although he says that comedy comes naturally to him, his dramaturgical background has led him to productions of classical theatre and the works of Shakespeare.^[10]

In April 2015, Ashmawy hosted the

The series was born after Ashmawy's mum and co-star Nancy, 72, announced that she wanted to do a skydive. The first series was one of the most watched programmes on Sky 1 in Ireland in 2014; season 2 was considered^[who?] as delightful as the first.

The show has been licensed by Sky Vision into over 150 territories worldwide, including Canada, Australia, China, and the Middle-East. Local versions of the show have been produced in a number of key territories, including Denmark (two series), Holland and Belgium with several countries picking up the 50 Way to Kill your Mammy format, making this Sky Vision's most successful factual entertainment property to date.^[28]

In November 2015 50 Ways to Kill Your Mammy won the

On 12 October 2017, Ashmawy announced on Twitter that he and Nancy would be filming a one off Christmas special broadcast exclusively on RTÉ Ireland. This was followed, on 12 November, by a series of Snapchat videos of Nancy, Baz and the production crew at Dublin airport waiting to fly out to Rome for filming.

Radio

In July 2017, Ashmawy hosted his radio show That Baz Thing on RTÉ Radio 1.^[29] On his show he interviewed different 3 guests every week as he explores a broad range of issues, including parenting, health, happiness and relationships.

Ashmawy co-hosted Weekend Breakfast with Baz & Lucy on RTÉ 2fm with Lucy Kennedy for 2 years.

Personal life

He has two daughters Hanna and Mahy. He is also stepfather to four other kids from a previous relationship (Charlotte, Harry, Jake and Amelia). One of his lungs collapsed on a transatlantic flight and he underwent double-lung surgery.^[30][31]

References