Quotes from Kayvan Novak

I'm the guy that can play all the different races and get away with it.

Generating comic material can sometimes get the better of you.

My characters are much more famous than I am, so I don't crave attention; I just crave working and doing good work. Having a feeling of self-worth.

Of course being in movies is very exciting, and it's a wonderful thing for an actor to do.

I enjoyed school until the age of 13 - I loved my teachers, my friends. Then, suddenly, you get thrown into a boys' school, and the ecosystem changed, and I wasn't sure where I fitted in. I was still always the clown, but I wasn't inspired, I guess.

I tick that cliched box of being the class clown. I've always done impressions and characters, so I'm very lucky that I get to do that as a career now.

I'm quite lucky, really: I don't get recognised too much.

My pranks have never been about getting a negative reaction. They've always been a tolerance test for the person I'm engaging with.

Just acting on someone else's set feels like a holiday, almost.

I'm Iranian, which means I feel that I have more right to take off other races and religions, being an 'ethnic' myself. But it's a mythical character, the Fonejacker, and it's all tongue in cheek.

The biggest mistake you can make with a prank show is remove the 'real' element, which is the funniest thing.

From 'Fonejacker,' multiculturalism has been a big part of my repertoire.

I was born in London. In a lot of ways I'm English, but I have this Iranianness, this culture instilled by my parents, by my family.

When a son tells a dad to trust him, it goes against every instinct in his body to do so.

I want to be James Bond! I don't want to be Doctor Who.

I've never sat down and written jokes. I wouldn't know how to.

I would very much like to direct, star, perform, and just be a general auteur.

I put my parents through mini hell with my laziness and poor grades, so I love making them laugh when they see me on television. When I work, I'm always thinking, 'Would my mother find this funny?' The belly-laugh jokes will hit her every time.

You don't read many positive things about Iran in the press, which is depressing, but when I go back to my grandparents' house in the hills, and I'm sitting by the pool, sipping a bootleg Turkish beer, watching a pirate DVD, eating my grandma's cooking... you realise there is a real bridge between politics and country and people.

I had to fool the world into accepting me. I didn't seem to fit the mould of my idols.

I had a niche. And my niche was that I was brown. So it's like, 'Great, I get to go up for all these 'brown parts.'' I call them 'brown parts' because that's what they are. That's not to be resentful, because I loved playing those parts - I got to meet so many cool actors.

My nickname at school was Caveman. When I tell people my name is Kayvan, some insist on going 'Caveman?'

Doing a series of 'Facejacker' takes about nine months. It's pretty intense.

Stanley Tucci is a classy actor, and Ian Holm is very short but equally classy - and both are also amazing.