Nabil Shaban (born 12 February 1953)[1] is a Jordanian-British actor and writer. He co-founded Graeae—a theatre group which promotes disabled[2] performers. He's best known as the recurring villain Sil in Doctor Who.
Shaban was born in Amman, Jordan, with brittle bone disease osteogenesis imperfecta.[3] He was sent to England for medical care, where he grew up in a series of hospitals and residential homes.[4] He studied at the University of Surrey in the late 1970s and contributed to the Students' Union newspaper "Bare Facts". In 1997, Shaban was awarded an honorary doctorate by the university for services in the promotion of Disability Arts.
In 2003 he made a TV documentary titled The Strangest Viking (part of Channel 4's Secret History series), in which Shaban explored the possibility that Viking chieftain Ivar the Boneless may have had osteogenesis imperfecta, the same condition he himself has.[8] Shaban has also published a trilogy of Ivarr the Boneless screenplays on Kindle, representing the Viking chieftain as a disabled Danish prince with brittle bones and unable to walk.
Shaban's play The First To Go premièred in May 2008, produced by Edinburgh's Benchtours Theatre Company in association with Sirius Pictures. It opened at the Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh on 23 May and toured to the Tron Theatre, Glasgow; the Byre Theatre, St Andrews and Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield.[10]
Creditsedit
Televisionedit
TV documentariesedit
Co-wrote and presented "The Skin Horse", 1984 Channel Four
Co-wrote and presented "The Fifth Gospel", 1990 BBC TV
Presented "Rejects and Super Crips", Channel Four
Presented "Children of Gaia", 1997, Milton Media, Denmark
Writer, producer, director, host "The Alien Who Lived in the Sheds", 1997, BBC TV
Associate producer and presenter "The Strangest Viking", 2003, Channel Four
Researcher, co-writer and presenter "Return of the Star People", 2003, Zentropa, Denmark.
The Alien who lived in the Sheds, BBC TV, 1997 (won 2 awards)
The Skin Horse (won Royal Television Society Award, Emmy Award)
Reports Action Appeal, Granada TV (won the Co-operative Society TV Award)
Gandhi; an Inspiration, BBC Radio World Service, 1983
Telephone Dummies, BBC TV drama, 1984
The Fifth Gospel, BBC TV Everyman documentary, 1990
King of the Incurables (screenplay), 1990
Circus Nightmare (screenplay), 1991
Another World, funded by Arts Council of England, 1995
D.A.R.E., Theatre Workshop, 1996–97
The First To Go, Graeae Theatre, 1996
The Inheritance (screenplay), BFI, 1997
The Alien who lived in the Sheds, BBC TV, 1997
I am the Walrus (one actor stage play), Theatre Workshop, 2001
Crip Triptych (music drama documentary), 2006
Morticia (film drama), 2009
Referencesedit
^Profile, screenonline.org.uk; retrieved 1 August 2011.
^Miles-Wildin, Nicky. "Disability and... Graeae with Nabil Shaban". Disability Arts Online. Retrieved 11 June 2021.
^"BFI Screenonline: Shaban, Nabil". Screenonline. Retrieved 3 June 2021.
^Profile, unfinishedhistories.com; retrieved 31 October 2019.
^Blair, Andrew (4 December 2015). "Doctor Who: 50 noteworthy villains". Den of Geek. Retrieved 11 June 2021.
^"Then and Now - From the Archive TLS". The TLS. Retrieved 11 June 2021.
^Taylor, Paul (23 October 2011). "Emperor and Galilean, National Theatre: London". The Independent. Archived from the original on 18 June 2022. Retrieved 11 June 2021.
^Banks-Smith, Nancy (13 June 2003). "Short and to the point: Culture; The Guardian". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 June 2021.
^Correspondent, A Scotland (16 May 2005). "Scots writers return to form in the theatre awards". The Times. Retrieved 11 June 2021.
^Fisher, Mark (2 June 2008). "The First to Go: Theatre". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 June 2021.
Further readingedit
Dreams my Father Sold Me — poetry and artworks by Nabil Shaban (ISBN 0-9548294-0-9)
The First To Go: An Original Play About Disabled People in Nazi Germany – by Nabil Shaban (ISBN 978-0954829414)
D.A.R.E. (Disabled Anarchists' Revolutionary Enclave) – Play (theatre) – by Nabil Shaban, Robert Rae, Jim McSharry, Daryl Beeton, and John Hollywood (ISBN 0-413-77261-6)
The Ripper Code – Fiction Crime Thriller – by Nabil Shaban (ISBN 978-0954829421)
Diary of the Absurd – Surreal Fiction – by Nabil Shaban (ISBN 978-0954829438)
The Saga of Ivarr the Boneless – Viking Historical Fiction (ISBN 978-0954-829445)