Meet Vafa Naraghi: the multilingual engineer-turned-comedian who’s taking Mzansi by storm

Stephen Grootes speaks to Vafa Naraghi, a civil engineer turned award-winning comedian, whose journey from Mahikeng to South Africa’s biggest stages reflects a mission to unite people through humour and shared experiences.

Listen to the interview in the audio player below.

If you’ve ever wondered what happens when you mix Iranian heritage, a Mahikeng upbringing and a Master’s degree in Structural Engineering, the answer is simple: you get Vafa, one of South Africa’s fastest-rising comedic stars.

Born in Pretoria and raised in Mahikeng, Vafa grew up immersed in a melting pot of cultures and languages of the new South Africa.

His parents arrived in South Africa from Iran in the mid-1980s, creating a new life in the country.

He’s fluent in six languages, English, Setswana, isiXhosa, Afrikaans, and Farsi, underlining the importance his parents placed on education.

"Like immigrant parents and most parents, they really valued education, so they were like 'you really need to be useful wherever you are, and have a job," says Naraghi.

After pursuing an engineering qualification at the University of Cape Town, and working in the industry for a few years, Naraghi wanted to do something else. Something completely different. That's when he decided in 2017 to swap hard hats for punchlines.

"Then I wanted to pursue this comedy. For the most part, they don't completely get it, but they definteky are supportive. But from their aspect, the traditional professions are the ones that they value, says Naraghi.

"I do realise they had to go through a lot like coming from a war state, a revolution and getting kicked out the country...they didn't have an opportunity to dream," added Naraghi.

His multilingual quips and cultural mashups have become part of his signature comedic spice, bringing a fresh new dynamic to South Africa's comedy scene.

"Comedy is about sharing a perspective, whether it's a popular opinion or not...to get people to see something, potentially in a different light."

Naraghi says his career transition from engineer to entertainer, has taken him from Mahikeng to the national comedy spotlight, and hopefully to the global stage.

Scroll to the top of the article to listen to the full interview.