Iqbal Theba

Born and raised in Karachi, Pakistan, Iqbal Theba came to the US as a college Freshman at the University of Oklahoma, Norman. While in college in Oklahoma, Theba studied Civil Engineering and eventually obtained a Bachelor of Science Degree in Construction Engineering Management. After realizing his true passion was acting, Theba returned to the University of Oklahoma study Acting. Thoroughly enjoying his time in Oklahoma (he is a true Sooner Football fan), after leaving college Theba decided to move to New York City to pursue his love of acting. After struggling in New York for over two years, Iqbal decided to make the move to Los Angeles in hopes of more acting work. Broke and not knowing anyone in Los Angeles, Theba stayed with friends in San Bernardino until he could save up enough money to finally move full-time to Los Angeles.

Once in Los Angeles, things started to turn around for Theba. He soon found a niche acting in television commercials. His first big commercial was for the Wherehouse Music Chain - where he sang the Chris Isaak song Wicked Game. This was followed by commercials for MacDonalds, Burger King, Subway, AT&T, Sprint, American Express, Capital One, Holiday Inn, Kelloggs Cereal, Tostitos, Got Milk and many others. Theba was the first South Asian to have appeared in dozens of mainstream national commercials in the 90's. It was through these television commercials that he was able to get his SAG Card, which opened the door to more mainstream Television and Film opportunities.

Theba's big Television break came after booking a role on the NBC pilot "Death and Taxes" (his second job in Los Angeles as an actor). Although the pilot wasn't picked up, this led to numerous co-starring and guest-starring roles in Television and Film (including working on TV in shows such as "L.A. Law," "Living Single," "Mad About You" and "Seinfeld"). Over the next 10 years, Theba continued to hone his craft and work on more television shows such guest starring on television shows such as "Ellen," "Caroline in the City," "Everybody Loves Raymond," "Friends," "King of the Hill," "The West Wing," "Judging Amy," "Alias," "Arrested Development," and "Weeds" (to name a few) as well as recurring roles on "The George Carlin Show," "Sister, Sister," "Rosanne," "Married With Children," "Family Matters," "ER," "JAG" and "Life With Bonnie." Some of Theba's film work includes "Indecent Proposal," "Driven," "Basketball, Dancing At the Blue Iguana," "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" and "Playing For Keeps."

After successfully establishing himself as one of the hardest working actors in Hollywood, Theba's big break came from his being cast as Principle Figgins in the hugely successful FOX television series "Glee." Although originally written for a Caucasian, Theba won the role and has in the process brought his own unique perspective to the character. As the beleaguered Principle of William McKinley High School, Principle Figgins tries to walk the tightrope between being fair with teacher Will Schuster (Matthew Morrison) while being constantly blackmailed and harassed by Coach Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch). In addition to Glee, Theba simultaneously starred on the NBC series, "Community," playing Danny's Dad on the series.

In 2010, Theba started the year off by winning a Screen Actor's Guild (SAG) Awards for his work on Glee. Most recently, he has been cast as General Umair Zaman in HBO's new sitcom, "The Brink." The show is about top U.S. government and military scrambling to prevent World War 3 from happening amidst the chaos of a geopolitical crisis.

In addition to his acting career Iqbal enjoys spending time with his wife Humera and their two children and traveling. His favorite writer is Anton Chekov, favorite movie is "2001 A Space Odyssey" and works with his favorite charity, The Edhi Foundation.