Born Aasif Hakim Mandviwala in Mumbai, Mandvi grew up in England and Florida before turning to acting in New York City. It first made headlines in the late 1990s when Sakina's Restaurant, an off-Broadway one-man show about the Indian immigrant experience that Mandvi wrote and performed, was called "wonderful" by The New York Times.

As his audience grew, Mandvi challenged stereotypes and provided a voice for Muslim Americans, changing the game in terms of how Asians are viewed on television. In 2015, he co-wrote, produced and acted in the web series Halal in the Family for the popular comedy site Funny or Die, using the sitcom format to address Islamophobia. When not acting, Mandvi uses his fame as a force for good, advocating for a variety of charities such as Relief 4 Pakistan, which helps alleviate flooding in Pakistan; Partners In Health, which provides modern healthcare to poor communities in nine countries around the world; and Planting Peace, which helps spread peace around the world through humanitarian aid and environmental initiatives.

Mandvi not only aspires to provide a positive representation of Muslim America, but also hopes to challenge non-Muslim audiences, as he recently shared in The New York Times: "First and foremost, I want them to be entertained. And I want them to laugh. And then maybe it makes people think about the absurdity of fear and prejudice, and say, oh, that's interesting, I've never thought of it that way."