Nabil Shaban
Acting
Biography
Nabil Shaban (1953-2025) was born in Amman, Jordan and arrived in England when he was three for treatment for his osteogenesis imperfecta (brittle-bone disease). He spent the next six years in hospital and seven in a children's home. In 1980, he and Richard Tomlinson founded Graeae (pronounced Grey Eye), a professional theatre company of disabled performers. A writer and performer with many film and television credits, he was probably best known to television viewers for his role as ruthless businessman Sil in the Doctor Who stories 'Vengeance on Varos' and 'The Trial of a Time Lord' (BBC, 1985 + 1986).
Born: February 12, 1953
Place of Birth: Amman, Jordan
Known For
Doctor Who
The adventures of The Doctor, a time-traveling humanoid alien known as a Time Lord. He explores the universe in his TARDIS, a sentient time-traveling spaceship. Its exterior appears as a blue British police box, which was a common sight in Britain in 1963 when the series first aired. Along with a succession of companions, The Doctor faces a variety of foes while working to save civilizations, help ordinary people, and right many wrongs.
Children of Men
In 2027, in a chaotic world in which humans can no longer procreate, a former activist agrees to help transport a miraculously pregnant woman to a sanctuary at sea, where her child's birth may help scientists save the future of humankind.
Doctor Who: Vengeance on Varos
When the TARDIS is in need of repairs, the Doctor and Peri are forced to land on Varos, a mining planet whose population is entertained and enslaved by a sadistic system of public torture and execution, and find themselves the latest unwilling subjects in this most extreme form of reality TV.
Doctor Who: Mindwarp
As the Doctor's trial continues, evidence is presented showing his most recent adventure, one where he faces an old adversary, Sil. As a scientist conducts his unethical experiments to prolong the life of Sil's boss Kiv, the Doctor's memories of the events begins to return and an unpleasant surprise awaits him.
City of Joy
Max Lowe is a Houston surgeon who has grown weary of the bureaucracy of American medicine. When he loses a patient on the operating table, Max impulsively decides to leave America and travel to India in the hope of finding himself. Not long after he arrives in Calcutta, Max is attacked by a group of thugs and left without money or a passport.
Wittgenstein
A dramatization, in modern theatrical style, of the life and thought of the Viennese-born, Cambridge-educated philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, whose principal interest was the nature and limits of language. A series of sketches depict the unfolding of his life from boyhood, through the era of the first World War, to his eventual Cambridge professorship and association with Bertrand Russell and John Maynard Keynes. The emphasis in these sketches is on the exposition of the ideas of Wittgenstein, a homosexual, and an intuitive, moody, proud, and perfectionistic thinker generally regarded as a genius.
Sorry About Last Night
A romantic comedy written by and starring Alexei Sayle. A couple on a first date in London are determined to find a drink after closing time, to prove to themselves that they are not careworn and middle-aged. What follows is a series of misadventures
Iranian Nights
A Channel Four special presentation of the Royal Court Theatre 1989 production, London. with Paul Bhattacharjee, Nabil Shaban and Fiona Victory. "Iranian Nights" was a play written and produced as a direct response by writers and artists to the notorious Feb 14 1989 Fatwa (a sentence of death) from Iran's leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, placed on Salman Rushdie for his novel "The Satanic Verses", regarded by fundamentalist Muslims as blasphemous.
Born of Fire
For reasons unknown, a flautist and an astronomer find themselves drawn to one another. But, when the flautist stumbles upon a secret regarding his late father, the two wind up in a celestial duel against the ancient Master Flautist for earth's future.
Sil and the Devil Seeds of Arodor
An original drama from the world of BBCtv's Doctor Who, featuring Sil, the ruthless alien entrepreneur from planet Thoros Beta, played by Nabil Shaban. Sil is worried, very worried, which doesn't keep his reptilian skin in the best condition! Confined in a cold detention cell on the moon, awaiting a deportation hearing for trial on drugs offences on Earth, he faces a death sentence if the application is successful and he is found guilty. And his employers at the Universal Monetary Fund aren t pleased either. Not at all. As time runs out and friends desert him, Sil must use all of his devious, vile, underhanded, ruthless, and amoral business acumen to survive. Can he possibly slime his way out of this one?
Filmography
as Sil
as Dr. Moores
as Bexhill Market Hustler
as Lawyer
as Alan
as Martian
as Anouar
as The Best Friend
as George
as The Laternist
as Caliph
as Charlie
as Prosecuting Counsel
as The Silent One
as Sil
as Bill
as Narrator
as Ben Gunn
as Sil