Shaun Majumder

Template:Short description Template:Infobox person Shaun Majumder (born January 29, 1972) is a Canadian actor and comedian. He is best known for his role on This Hour Has 22 Minutes, where he worked from 2003 until 2018. He won a Gemini Award for his work on the series in 2006. His other television credits include Republic of Doyle (2010–2014) and From (2022–present).

Early life

Majumder was born on January 29, 1972 in Toronto, Ontario to Mani Majumder, an Indian father from West Bengal, and Marian Bartlett, a European-Canadian woman from Burlington, Newfoundland.<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> He was raised in his mother's hometown of Burlington.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> His parents separated after seven years.<ref name="Progress Media">Template:Cite web</ref> Majumder has an older sister named Rani.<ref name="Progress Media"/>

Majumder has said that because he was raised by a white mother and around white people, he had no idea he "was anything but white".<ref name="The Globe and Mail">Shaun Majumder, every word really is absolutely true. Posted by John Doyle, April 30, 2012.</ref> In his standup acts, he jokes about joining his schoolmates in chanting racist slurs before realizing that he was the victim they were talking about.<ref name="The Globe and Mail"/><ref name="The Star 2014"> Shaun Majumder celebrates This Hour Has 22 Minutes. Posted by Richard Ouzounian for The Star Edition. Dec. 5, 2014.</ref> Majumder was very close to his mother who he says raised them selflessly so that he and his sister were unaware of the extreme poverty in which they lived.<ref name="The Star 2014"/><ref name="Winnipeg Free Press">Template:Cite news</ref> His mother died of a heart attack in 2003.<ref name="Guelph Mercury">Comedian Shaun Majumder shows emotional side in new HBO documentary. Posted by Whatson for Guelph Mercury Tribune.com. Apr 27, 2012.</ref> Majumder feels a debt of love to Newfoundland which has influenced him and his work, and has given him a rhythm of appreciation for what he has.<ref name="Progress Media"/>

Career

Majumder started his entertainment career as an announcer for the YTV game show CLIPS, and soon was hosting the network's popular morning kids show Brain Wash, where he was known as Ed Brainbin. He also hosted the "Slime Tour" segments on the popular game show Uh Oh!. Eventually he joined This Hour Has 22 Minutes in 2003,<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref> and also hosted 15 episodes of the Just for Laughs specials on television and participated in the Comedy festivals in Montreal. He was also a star of Cedric the Entertainer Presents, aired in the United States on the Fox network, and appeared in an NFB documentary on aspiring Canadian comics, The Next Big Thing.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Majumder has also starred in the CBC comedy pilot Hatching, Matching and Dispatching and the short film Plain Brown Rapper, as well as playing Kumar's brother in the 2004 comedy Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle.

Majumder often plays an alter ego called Raj Binder. Binder is an awkward, nervous and usually excessively sweaty Indian reporter with a strong accent. Binder first appeared in a sketch from a comedy showcase with some former YTV costars called The Bobroom,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and also appeared on Just For Laughs and This Hour Has 22 Minutes. Majumder caused some minor controversy when "Raj" posed in the MegaStars group picture during the 2003 Heritage Classic NHL outdoor ice-hockey game.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2006, Majumder won a Gemini Award for his work on This Hour Has 22 Minutes.

Majumder made a guest appearance on two episodes of the television series 24, playing Hasan Numair. He also played Dr. Freddy Sahgal in the short-lived Fox TV series Unhitched, which aired in March 2008.

In 2010, Majumder had a guest starring role as Benny Natchie in Republic of Doyle, and from 2010 to 2011 starred in the American TV series Detroit 1-8-7 as Detective Vikram Mahajan.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In the summer of 2011, Majumder was cast in The Firm, a Canadian-American co-production, in the recurring role of Andrew Palmer, the lawyer at the firm who befriends Josh Lucas' character Mitch McDeere.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The show ran for one season.

From 2013 to 2014, Majumder starred in the documentary TV series Majumder Manor, which documented his quest to develop the tourism potential in his picturesque hometown of Burlington, Newfoundland. The show also featured his family, friends, and community.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In December 2016, Majumder starred in a controversial satirical short produced by This Hour Has 22 Minutes, titled "Beige Power", which called for white supremacists to "embrace the beige" and accept that humans will all "look the same by the year 3000". The short received mixed reviews, with some criticising it for being racist, and others finding it humorous.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In August 2018, Majumder was not hired back for the next season of This Hour Has 22 Minutes after he sent a letter to the producers with suggestions on the future direction of the show. Citing creative differences with Majumder, the production team chose to cut ties.<ref name=":0" />

In 2021, Deadline announced that Majumder was cast in the forthcoming science fiction horror television series From,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and the first season of the series was released globally in 2022.<ref name="Premieredate">Template:Cite web</ref>

Personal life

On 21 December 2012, Majumder married American actress Shelby Fenner.<ref name="Canada">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Fenner">Template:Cite web</ref> They have two daughters. Majumder lived in Los Angeles but moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia in 2025.<ref> https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/9.6675937</ref>

Filmography

Films

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1998	Reluctant Angel	Male Clerk
1999	Pushing Tin	New Controller
2000	The Ladies Man	V.S.A. Member
2002	Purpose	Victor
2004	Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle	Saikat Patel
2005	Plain Brown Rapper	Sundeep Rappa	short
2007	I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry	Protester Outside of Court	Uncredited
2009	Bob Funk	Raymundo

TV

Year	Title	Role	Episode
1997	Uh Oh!	Himself	Absence Maze the Hat Grew Fonder
1997	Once a Thief	The Prince	It Happened One Night
1998/99	SketchCom	Various	The Bobroom and Pale by Comparison/The Bobroom and the Stand-Ins
1999	The City	Mick	Blood Sports
2000	The Bobroom	Various	TV special
2001	Relic Hunter	Baz	The Light of Truth
2002	Royal Canadian Air Farce	Chip Kellaway / The Visible Minority	Episode 9.13
2002/2003	Cedric the Entertainer Presents	Various	17 episodes
2003	This Hour Has 22 Minutes: New Year's Eve Special		TV movie
2004	Snakes & Ladders	Daniel Ivory	Sisters
2004	Nevermind Nirvana	Raju Mehta	TV movie
2006	Hatching, Matching and Dispatching	Cyril Pippy	6 episodes
2007	24	Hasan Numair	Day 6: 9:00 a.m.-10:00 a.m./Day 6: 8:00 a.m.-9:00 a.m.
2008	Unhitched	Freddy	6 episodes
2008	Robson Arms	Dr. Jordan Cohen	Baby? What Baby?
2009	Da Kink in My Hair	Sanjay	Oil's Well That Ends Well/Coming Out of the Closet/Of Papers and Patois
2009	Married Not Dead	Jay	TV movie
2008–2009	Less Than Kind	Tito	French Is My Kryptonite/I Am Somewhere/Fatso Loves Lesbo
2010–2011	Detroit 1-8-7	Detective Vikram Mahajan	18 episodes
2011	Bad Mom	Kevin	TV movie
2012	The Firm	Andrew Palmer	12 episodes
2013	Satisfaction	Trevor	First contact
2010–2014	Republic of Doyle	Benny Natchie	Fathers and Sons/ True Lies
2015	Breed	Teddy	TV movie
2013–2017	This Hour Has 22 Minutes	Various	82 episodes
2017	A Christmas Fury	Cyril Pippy	TV movie
2018	Addison	Max	10 episodes
2021	Something Undone	Coroner	3 episodes
2022–2024	From	Father Khatri	14 episodes
2025	Star Trek: Strange New Worlds	Dr. Trunn Voor	One episode

Radio

Year	Title	Role	Episode
2006/07	The Debaters	Original Series Host	Season 1 (26 out of 32 episodes)
2007/08	The Debaters	Host	Season 2 (3 episodes)

Web series

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Template:Abbr
2025	Tales From Woodcreek	Template:TableTBA	Actual play; guest role	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref>

External links

• Shaun Majumder
• Template:IMDb name