Kamal Ahmed(I)

Born May 7th 1966 in East New York, Brooklyn and raised in Astoria, Queens. Kamal is the son of an immigrant Bangladeshi father and Trinidadian mother (His father opened a string of East Indian restaurants in Manhattan's East Village, and his mother was a classically trained opera singer) After attending P.S.122Q and Steinway JHS 141Q, Kamal got accepted into the high school of Art & Design in 1980, then went on to graduate at City-As-School in 1984. Kamal is an accomplished musician, who plays the electric bass and scored all the music on his directorial debut, God Has a Rap Sheet (2003) with his band "The sacred groove posse". 1993 saw Kamal in the comedy group, "The Jerky Boys", who went on to sell 4 1/2 million copies and were nominated for a Grammy in 1995. After leaving the "Jerky boys", Kamal directed the documentary Artists of Hell's Kitchen (2000) (he won best director of a documentary at the New York International & Independent Film & Video Festival). His new film, the feature God Has a Rap Sheet (2003) has had its fan base of Hollywood big-shots - Martin Scorsese and Abel Ferrara both called the film "Brilliant". He is an avid baseball fan, particularly the New York Mets, and has studied Judo as a serious hobby.