Nick Mohammed is TV's new comedy MVP

Welcome to Thanks, I Love It, our series highlighting something onscreen we're obsessed with this week. 

There is a point, towards the end of Ted Lasso Season 1, when Nathan (Nick Mohammed) thinks he has been fired. The soft-spoken equipment manager is at once furious and heartbroken; after years of blending into the background or being bullied, he finally feels at home with the Richmond football team.

But he's not fired — in fact, he's been promoted, and within moments the whole team has him up on their shoulders, chanting his name as Nick beams. If you've stayed with the show through this heartwarming scene, chances are you beamed as well, and that's credit in no small part to Mohammed's performance — the thing we love this week.

"The confidence that has grown within him, that felt really important and crucial to playing that part," Mohammed told Mashable over the phone recently. "You just want to find some kind of element of truth to it... Even if it's only you who knows that as the actor, that I think really is the thing that can then connect to an audience or make it kind of come off the page."

Nathan's journey throughout the season is one of confidence, Mohammed says, even if it's from Barely Any to Actually A Little Bit.

"There's an element of me, suffering from imposter syndrome, but only in the sense that I'm so grateful to be in this line of work, because I love it so much," he says. "Gosh, I can't — it's almost like a dream to be able to do something that you love that much."

Jerry (David Schwimmer) makes a lot of short jokes at the expense of Joseph (Nick Mohammed). Luckily, Mohammed wrote them. Credit: peacock

Mohammed is a new face in the U.S. comedy scene, with Ted Lasso and Peacock's Intelligence, which he created and stars in with David Schwimmer. Mohammed's work carries a distinctly British humor, dry and self-deprecating (he writes a lot of short jokes at his own expense), but eliciting huge laughs from timing. It's a style he honed through radio and sketch comedy — and also as a professional magician.

"I still adore magic and do it as a hobby, and to entertain family and friends if they can bear it," he says with a laugh. "I stopped doing it professionally once comedy and acting properly took over. But I always used to sneak a bit of comedy into that. It probably sort of originally started then, and I guess mucking around at school and imitating teachers."

In fact, Mohammed has written children's books about magic and thinks that world is ripe for television or film. As a member of the Magic Circle, he can confirm it's "full of real characters."

"With GCHQ in intelligence, we sort of play with what people might think about how these agents and NSA agents might operate in terms of keeping us safe," he explains. "And similarly, with magicians and being members of this sort of secret society, what does that mean? How do you learn tricks? If you give away a trick, you get banned from the magic circuit. I find it all really interesting... There's a rich history there."

Writer and actor Nick Mohammed, trapped with two improv comedians holding him hostage. Credit: appletv+

Mohammed's comedy credentials are among the finest; he attended Cambridge University and joined the comedy troupe that gave rise to Fry and Laurie, Emma Thompson, and Monty Python, to heavily name-drop a few. That led him more toward sketch than improv comedy, which is the bread and butter of Ted Lasso costars (and co-creators) Jason Sudeikis and Brendan Hunt.

"I just don't know if I'm even fast enough to keep up with them guys," Mohammed says, sounding equally chuffed and modest in a very Coach Nate way. "There were quite a few Nathan/Coach Beard/Ted scenes, and I was often in the firing line. They would start riffing, and I would feel like I was sort of trapped between these two brilliant, brilliant guys."

"It wouldn't be too Nathan to sort of speak up too much," he adds. "Nathan would just sort of sit back and allow things, so I thought 'Oh, well I can justify it.'"

Mohammed does have improv experience, including on Intelligence, where he writes all the scripts and gets to boss around David Schwimmer (just kidding!) (kind of).

"It's just so strange, but you know, David's like a good mate now...so it's very collaborative," Mohammed explains. He's actually on a lunch break while filming Intelligence Season 2, where Schwimmer occupies the trailer next door. "I'm so grateful to be able to lean on his wealth of experience, because obviously David is one of the greatest actors of our generation, right? To not pay attention to the notes that he would give me as well would be really silly. So, it's really mutual, in that respect."

With Intelligence Season 2 in production and more Ted Lasso confirmed, Mohammed will be a steady presence on our screens in the coming years, hopefully catching more credits as well. He'd also love to get into drama ("assuming I would ever be able to do it because it'd be such a challenge"), but unfortunately it's too late for his dream role.

"If it hadn't all been made already... Voldemort, in the Harry Potter films. But you know, obviously: A.) I'm not tall enough, B.) it's been made, and C.) Ralph Fiennes did a fine job."

Ted Lasso is streaming on AppleTV+ and Intelligence is available on Peacock.