United States Of Al

Season 2 M-Net (*101) 19:00 Comedy

Mental health is a cause that actor Adhir Kalyan champions and says that it wasn’t a difficult decision to play Afghanistan translator Al Karimi in two-season comedy series United States Of Al. “You’ve just got to look at the mental state of so many soldiers who come back from war. They’re not okay. They’ve seen and done things that scar them for life – and they don’t get the help they deserve and need,” says the actor who has close ties to South Africa. Very close ties…

1 The 38-year-old is a Durbanite – and his mom is famous: She is politician Santosh “Sandy” Kalyan, former Member Of Parliament for the Democratic Alliance. Adhir moved to the UK in 2005 2 to chase his dreams of being an actor and while he was typecast as an immigrant, Adhir says, “That’s okay. You’ve got to get your foot in the door and to have been on a show like medical drama Holby City (as Arjmand Younis) was fantastic. It really helped me.” United States Of Al came under 3 fire for hiring Adhir (who’s of Indian heritage) instead of an actor from Afghanistan, but Adhir brushed it off. “It’s not my fault the producers cast me. They put out a brief, my agent got me a slot and they liked what I did with Al. I’m from South Africa – are they going to complain about that too?” He married actress 4 Emily Wilson (Ellie in US soapie General Hospital) in 2016 and had two ceremonies: One in Palm Springs, California and the second at the Umgeni Road Temple in Durban. Their daughter Mira was born in 2021. Adhir runs marathons and plays 5 tennis to stay in shape.