Ali Siddiq (born October 17, 1973) is an American stand-up comedian and writer and former radio personality and public speaker based in Houston, Texas.
[9] At age 10, Siddiq was almost run over by a car, which resulted in his mother and aunt getting into a fight with the driver after she refused to apologize.
[11][12] He was convicted of "delivery of a controlled substance" and served six years of a 15-year sentence in the Ruben M. Torres Unit in Hondo, Texas.
[7] It was during his incarceration, while telling jokes to fellow inmates to lighten the mood, that he discovered his ability to make people laugh.
[16] He describes Rodney Dangerfield as an early influence to do stand-up, adding that "he made me see that the comedy game doesn’t have to be a selfish thing."
[9][7] Siddiq performed on the series finale of HBO's Def Comedy Jam on the 10th episode of the eighth season which aired on March 8, 2008.
'"[9] Siddiq hosted and performed as the opening act on Bill Bellamy's Ladies Night Out Tour on February 22, 2013 on Showtime.
[2] In 2016, Siddiq performed a half-hour-long special on Comedy Central series The Half Hour on the seventh episode of the fifth season which aired on September 16.
[29] In 2017, he began production on his one-hour special It's Bigger Than These Bars, which was filmed at the Bell County Jail in Belton, Texas.
[5] The FM radio show concluded on January 26, 2024, after Jones was given notice a day in advance of its cancellation after being on the air since 2014.
[32] In 2022, Siddiq performed an hour-long special on Epix series Unprotected Sets on the fourth episode of the third season which aired on February 25.
Siddiq performed on the second episode of DL Hughley's Speakeasy, a three-part stand-up comedy series, which released on Hitkor in early 2023.
[34] He appeared on Vice News and The Marshall Project's documentary series Inside Story on its seventh episode, "The Rise of Life-Without-Parole Sentences", which was released on March 16.
[40][41] Since 2009 Siddiq has hosted the annual Jive Turkeys Comedy Show to raise money for the Houston Food Bank.
[6] In 2018 Siddiq also performed at an annual benefit held by Saba Homes, an orphanage organization created to help orphans of the 2005 Kashmir earthquake in Pakistan.