16 Facts About Sarfraz Manzoor

Sarfraz Manzoor is a British journalist, documentary maker, broadcaster, and screenwriter of Pakistani origin.

Sarfraz Manzoor is a regular contributor to The Guardian, presenter of documentaries on BBC Radio 4, and a cultural commentator who appears on programmes such as Newsnight Review and Saturday Review.

Sarfraz Manzoor emigrated to Britain in May 1974 with his mother, older brother and sister to join their father, Mohammed Manzoor, who had left Pakistan in 1963 to find work.

Sarfraz Manzoor attended Maidenhall Infants and Primary Schools in the Bury Park district of Luton.

Three days before Sarfraz Manzoor turned 24 in 1995, his father died.

Sarfraz Manzoor worked for six years at ITN, as a producer and reporter on Channel 4 News interviewing such figures as Woody Allen, Brian Wilson, Sinead O'Connor, Peter Gabriel, Don McCullin and Charlie Watts.

Sarfraz Manzoor left Channel 4 News and joined Channel 4 as a deputy commissioning editor before signing a contract with Bloomsbury Publishing for his first book.

Sarfraz Manzoor scripted The Great British Asian Invasion for Channel 4 and wrote and directed Death of a Porn Star for the same network which told the tragic story of the life and death of Lolo Ferrari.

Sarfraz Manzoor presented a documentary for Channel 4 on the 2006 Guardian Hay Book Festival On the Way to Hay in which he interviewed Monica Ali and Will Self.

In March 2005, Sarfraz Manzoor wrote and presented Luton Actually, a documentary for BBC 2.

The programme, a personal and affectionate portrait of his hometown, featured Sarfraz Manzoor tracing his family's journey from Pakistan to Luton.

Sarfraz Manzoor has written and presented documentaries for BBC Radio 4.

Sarfraz Manzoor contributed an article White Girls to the literary quarterly Granta, issue 112.

Sarfraz Manzoor has written for Daily Mail, The Guardian, The Independent, New Statesman, The Observer, Prospect, The Spectator, Uncut, Marie Claire and The Times.

Sarfraz Manzoor was appointed as Chancellor of the University of Bedfordshire in 2023.

In 2010, Sarfraz Manzoor married Bridget, a speech and language therapist, a union initially disapproved of by his mother and siblings because she was a non-Muslim white woman.