Brian George (born July 1952) is a British-Israeli character actor, who typically plays guest roles for characters of Middle Eastern and South Asian descent, some more stereotypical than others. Perhaps his most famous role is as Pakistani restaurateur Babu Bhatt on Seinfeld.
George was born in Jerusalem, Israel to Mizrachi Baghdadi Jewish parents who had immigrated to Israel from India. His mother was born in India and his father was born in Iraq but raised in Bombay. A year after his birth, the family moved from Israel to London, and then to Toronto in 1966. George is the youngest of four siblings.
He attended an all-boys school in London, but made the switch to a public co-ed high school when the family moved to Toronto. He attended the University of Toronto, where he was active in the university's theater productions. George left before graduation and formed a theater group; unsuccessful, he moved on to join The Second City, where he trained with John Candy, among others.
George appeared as a United Nations secretary on Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery and as Julian Bashir's father in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Doctor Bashir, I Presume?". He had a recurring role as newsman "Hugh Persons" on Doctor, Doctor during the series' second season.
He made a one-time guest appearance in Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda in the first season as Wayist religious leader Vikram Singh Khalsa. This was developed by Robert Hewitt Wolfe who worked on Deep Space Nine.
He has also done voiceover work in animated shows such as Batman: The Animated Series, Kim Possible, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Batman Beyond, and Justice League (taking over the role of Parasite from the late Brion James, as well as portraying President George W. Bush). He has also appeared in videogames like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Baldur's Gate and Everquest II. Early in his acting career, he was among the cast of 1985's The Care Bears Movie and voiced the part of "Lifo" in the US version of the UK children's cartoon Telebugs.
His most recent appearances include the role of Mr. Pashmutt on Desperate Housewives (in the 2005 episode "You Could Drive a Person Crazy"), Ali on American Dad! (in the 2005 episode "Stan of Arabia") and Barbossa in Kingdom Hearts II and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow. In 2006 he landed a recurring role as Sasan's father Omid on the VH1 sitcom So NoTORIous. He also appeared on The 4400 in the third season episode "The Starzl Mutation."
He also voiced Sahin the Falcon and Stuart Black in Age of Empires III and is also the voice of Fareed "Freddie" Abdul Salaam (a taxi driver and informant) in the game True Crime: New York City. He plays a short tempered convenience store owner in the 2001 movie Ghost World. He also plays the role of "Iqbal" in the 2006 movie Employee Of The Month.
He played "Pushpop" an Indian icecream vender in the 2001 movie Bubble Boy.
