We’re excited to announce the full cast for Guards at the Taj by Rajiv Joseph, directed by 2024 JMK Award winner, Adam Karim.
We’re delighted to announce the full cast for this yea’rs JMK Award-winning production, Guards at the Taj. This funny and ever-surprising play follows the two men tasked with guarding the Taj Mahal the night before it’s unveiling. The only people in the city who have been told they’re not allowed to peek at the beauty behind them, can they resist the urge to take one life-changing look.
Adam Karim directs Usaamah Ibraheem Hussain (Peanut Butter and Blueberries – Kiln) and Maanuv Thiara (Boys on the Verge of Tears – Soho Theatre).
Also announced today are further additions to the creative team – joint JMK Award Winner designer Roisin Jenner is joined by Lighting designer Eliot Griggs, Composer Xana, Sound designer Niraj Chag and Casting Director Matilda James CDG.
Usaamah Ibraheem Hussain plays Babur. 
Theatre credits include Peanut Butter and Blueberries ( Kiln); Brown Boys Swim (Soho Theatre) and Coram Boy (Nottingham Playhouse).
Television credits include Surface.
Usaamah trained at LAMDA.
Maanuv Thiara plays Humayun. 
Theatre credits include Boys on the Verge of Tears (Soho Theatre); The Cherry Orchard (The Yard Theatre); The Father and the Assassin (National Theatre); Mismatch, Boys Who Cry (Birmingham Repertory Theatre); Love N Stuff (Sheffield Theatres, Oldham Coliseum); Disproportionately Affected: Collection 1 (TARA Theatre); The Invisible Hand, Approaching Empty (Kiln Theatre); Macbeth (Rabble Theatre) and The Funeral Director (Southwark Playhouse).
Television credits include, Generation Z, Varsity, Trigger Point, DI Ray, Landscapers, Ted Lasso, Brassic, Line of Duty, Hamlet and The Boy with the Topknot.
Film credits include The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry.
Rajiv Joseph’s play Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo was a 2010 Pulitzer Prize finalist for drama and also awarded a grant for Outstanding New American Play by the National Endowment for the Arts. His play Archduke received its world première in 2017 at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. Other plays include Gruesome Playground Injuries, The Monster at the Door, Animals Out of Paper, The Lake Effect, The North Pool, Mr. Wolf and Describe the Night.
Joseph has been awarded artistic grants from the Whiting Foundation, United States Artists and the Harold & Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust. He is a board member of the Lark Play Development Center in New York City, where he develops all his plays.
Adam Karim is a freelance theatre director and facilitator. He was most recently Donmar Warehouse Resident Assistant Director 2023 where he worked across Clyde’s, When Winston Went To War With The Wireless and Trouble In Butetown. His other theatre credits as director include Platform (East15); Pressure Drop (Immediate Theatre, The Yard Theatre, schools tour) and Second Person Narrative (Omnibus Theatre); and as an assistant director, his credits include The P-Word (Bush Theatre, Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Affiliate Theatre) and Sorry You’re Not A Winner (Paines Plough).
