“Christmas payment for my house extension!” How Guz Khan Became an Unexpected Festive TV Icon | television

gOz Khan is developing something of a reputation as Mr. Christmas. The comedian and actor is about to release Stuffed, a one-hour Lapland-set comedy co-starring Morgana Robinson. This time last year, he voiced a reindeer in a Richard Curtis cartoon this Christmas. Two years earlier, he presented a special celebratory screening with James Acaster examining the scientific validity of “Home Alone.”

“It seems that, based on all the projects I just mentioned, Christmas paid for my house expansion,” Khan said out loud over the phone. “Much better than Christmas, brother, based on the facts you just gave me.”

But if Stuffed represents Khan’s latest endeavor to become the face of Christmas, he seems a bit apprehensive about it. If you’re familiar with his work, you’ll know how well he uses his talkative persona and cluster-bombing of the term “bro” (I counted 46 uses in our interview) to camouflage a more thoughtful mind.

The stuffed one is definitely a departure. At this point, Khan was best known for Man Like Mobeen, a breakout sitcom about life surrounding Birmingham’s underworld that he co-created with writer Andy Milligan. Despite being written by Milligan, Stuffed is much less pleasant. The story of a cruel father who uses a Christmas bonus to take his family on the holiday of a lifetime, only to realize it was paid for in error and must be returned, is a family story that is wide-ranging and big-hearted. Like all good Christmas shows, it balances humor with an undercurrent of melancholy.

“Was everything okay?” he asks nervously. “You never know when you’re making something. I never thought we’d be in this kind of opening. There’s a lot of things that come with doing a Christmas special.”

How is that? “A lot of the work I get asked to do is like: ‘Come and do whatever you want.’ I’ve just finished the second season of The Gentlemen, and it’s been a really fun week. There’s no rules. You can go absolutely crazy,” he explains. “But it was a little different. You have to follow some guidelines. So that was a good challenge for me. Where I usually expressed myself through dialogue, I had to try to get the same feeling through expression.”

Filming in Lapland must have been special. “Most of them were made near the roundabout in Reading, brother,” he replied, breaking the spell somewhat. “But when we went to Lapland, I realized that somewhere deep down, my genetics were warning me not to go to a very cold country. It’s everything you can imagine: really beautiful, wonderful people. But my brown ass will never enter that place again. Unless the second part is changed to somewhere warm with a nice beach, I’m out.”

However, what Stuffed achieves is something quietly groundbreaking. “I don’t know if there are a lot of pictures of interfaith couples at Christmas,” he says. The central relationship in Stuffed is the marriage between Hannah Robinson (who celebrates Christmas) and Arsalan Khan (who, as a Muslim, participates in a separate confusion). This element is buried deep in the show, but it’s definitely there.

“It’s a really interesting dynamic,” Khan says. “They just live a normal life. There’s nothing annoying or stressful. It’s all the things that any couple would go through. And for me and Andy, especially in Man Like Mobeen, a lot of people would say, ‘Isn’t that groundbreaking?’ We were like, ‘Not really.’ It’s just a normal life. I suppose a lot of country people will listen to it and say, ‘Well, maybe that’s the first time I’ve seen that.’ Maybe some people will get angry. And, you know, that’s also part of the journey.”

I say it would be smart not to underestimate the British public’s capacity for anger. “Like my old colleague Stephen Yaxley-Lennon,” he said aloud. “I’ll send him a link! I’ll send him an early bird link! I talk to him a lot on Instagram, so I might say, ‘Steve, this is for you, baby.'”

Aside from his ongoing obsession with Christmas, this was another big year in a long line of big years for Khan. In May, he released the final season of Man Like Mobeen, the show that made his name. This is a testament to the quality of the show as it has come out with the best series of episodes so far. Over the years, what started out as a smart, silly sitcom about a former drug dealer has gradually sharpened its edges. Life becomes more difficult for the characters. There was death. In the end, the show felt as much like a thriller as it did a comedy.

“I feel a personal responsibility because it wasn’t just like idiots, right?” He says about the end. “You don’t all end up winning the lottery. In Small Heath and the West Midlands, we have some of the most serious levels of crime we’ve ever seen. And to present Maupin in this way: ‘Oh yeah, what a wonderful guy,’ you can’t do that. It’s a bad life. It’s a life that will destroy you, and you’ll lose the people closest to you, so we always wanted to keep that meaning. I never want a kid to watch the show and be like: ‘I want to be like Maupin.’ I want you to enjoy the friendships that they have, but I definitely I don’t want you to live this lifestyle.

Is this definitely the end? “It feels right to me personally, because it was based on one phase of my life 20 years ago,” he says. “But now, with my waist size and all the good food that comes with this game, I don’t feel like I’m the right guy to tell the stories of Small Heath or any inner city or working-class area. I want to see a girl like Maupin. I want to see that next generation. I still feel like ending it is the right thing. But we can never say never. I’d like to see what those characters would look like in their late fifties, if we were all still alive. Yes, definitely someone special there, but you never want to outstay your welcome.”

However, it looks like 2026 could be an even bigger year. In addition to The Gentlemen, and an unscripted show called Guz Khan’s Custom Cars, there’s one project he seems particularly excited about: Riz Ahmed’s upcoming Prime Video comedy.

“Reese is very excited about it, too,” he says. A series about a struggling actor who faces an existential crisis after landing the role of a lifetime. The series is written by Ahmed, and at first glance appears to be somewhat autobiographical. “It’s his first time creating a show in almost 27 years of acting, and he’ll be landing next year,” continues Khan, who will play Ahmed’s cousin. “It’s his life story, and it’s an absolute honor to be a part of it. He’s so proud that he got to tell his story. And it blew my mind, bro, because when we were filming it, I was just talking about the context of making the show. And he turned to me, put his hand on my shoulder, and said, ‘Bro, I’ve been doing this for 27 years, and yet no one has asked me to do my own show.’ “Just remember how lucky you were.” She was.

Looking at Khan’s career so far, it’s difficult to get a full sense of the scale. He’s created his own show, and balanced it with roles in ever-bigger international projects, like Andy Samberg’s animated comedy Digman! And Rebel Wilson’s upcoming film Girl Group. As previously mentioned, he has now become the animated Christmas incarnate. Does he have any ambitions left?

“You know, basically, what I have to do is raise these kids,” he says of his five children, who range in age from 11 months to 14 years. “Now you mention it, though, it makes me think. I’ve worked with Idris Elba after only performing for two years, and with Pedro Pascal. I even spent a week in the jungle with Judi Love. Bro, my life is beyond crazy. But as long as it lasts, as long as this crazy rollercoaster that we’re all on, I just want to work with good people and enjoy good vibes. And I’ve been very lucky so far, whether it’s the stuff I’ve created or whether it’s been asked to go and do it. Just Keep having fun, bro, and that’s the most important thing. I’m not worried about Hollywood, we’re just trying to have fun, however long this park lasts.

Stuffed airs on BBC One on December 23 at 9pm.