Sketchy Muslims: women-led comedy that’s ‘halal but not cringe’
After meeting at a writers’ workshop, Noor Sobka and Luna Al-Kaisy are breaking down barriers and putting Muslim performers in the spotlight
When Noor Sobka and Luna Al-Kaisy first met at an Arab writers’ workshop in London, they bonded over US sitcoms from Modern Family to Parks and Recreation. Hours passed as they talked through their favourite shows and what makes good comedy work.
Those conversations eventually led to the launch of Sketchy Muslims, a new women-led, Muslim sketch comedy group debuting its first live show at the east London arts centre Poplar Union on 8 and 9 May.
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“We both thought, ‘Why don’t we do something that’s completely our own?’” says Sobka. She and Al-Kaisy had spent years trying to break into the entertainment industry — Sobka as an actor and playwright, Al-Kaisy as a screenwriter — navigating a world they describe as slow, gatekept and often limiting.
“When you send off a script, you’re sometimes waiting a year for someone to reply,” says Al-Kaisy. “We thought that if we put this on ourselves, we’re working on our own timeline.”
After watching Sobka perform in a sketch show, Al-Kaisy suggested creating an all-Muslim women sketch collective, something they hadn’t seen before in the UK. They launched the group in November 2025, recruiting a small cast of Muslim women performers who would be onstage alongside Sobka, including content creator Adna Ahmed and actors Sajida Yasin and Saher Shah. Within months, they had written and produced a full show.
For both founders, sketch comedy felt like the most natural format. Unlike sitcoms or longer-form projects, it allowed them to experiment quickly and test-drive new ideas.
“With sketch, you can push it, make it as weird as you want, create really crazy characters and exaggerate one joke as far as it can go,” says Al-Kaisy.
The project was also shaped by frustration with how Muslim women are typically portrayed on screen and how rarely they’re given space in comedy. “There are so many funny Muslim women on social media, but there’s a huge gap where they’re not getting into TV or film,” says Al-Kaisy.
“When they do, it’s very specific roles — refugee, terrorist or oppressed. That’s it,” Sobka adds.
Instead, Sketchy Muslims leans into the everyday experiences of Muslim women, with sketches inspired by childhood memories and cultural quirks. “It’s just what we find funny, what’s annoying, what’s relatable,” says Sobka.
Sobka and Al-Kaisy describe the Sketchy Muslim ethos as “halal, but not cringe”. Instead of relying on swearing or other explicit content, they focus on sharp writing and creating humorous characters, something they argue pushes them to be more inventive.
“Limitations actually create more creativity,” says Sobka. “We don’t need to rely on swearing or vulgarity to be funny.”
Financing the show has been one of the biggest challenges. The group launched a crowdfunding campaign and approached a range of Muslim-owned businesses for support and sponsorship. They say the strongest backing came from individuals and grassroots supporters. Alongside the donations, spaces such as Poplar Union, which has provided the venue free of charge, have also stepped up.
As well as writing the show, Al-Kaisy and Sobka built the cast from scratch, relying on word of mouth and their own contacts. Some performers were already known to them through writing programmes and theatre projects, while others came via recommendations and chance connections on social media.
“It really was like assembling the Avengers,” says Al-Kaisy, describing how one introduction led to another. One cast member linked up with the group through her daughter, who connected with Al-Kaisy and Sobka at a pitching event where they were sharing their plans for Sketchy Muslims — a reminder, they say, of how much Muslim creative communities rely on informal networks to find and support each other.
The women involved are a diverse bunch, including performers with Somali, Pakistani and Libyan backgrounds.
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“We didn’t want just one type of Muslim woman,” says Sobka. “We wanted it to feel representative of how varied the community actually is.”
The community response is already evident in ticket sales, with the Saturday show already sold out and the Friday show heading in the same direction.
“There’s clearly an appetite for this,” says Sobka. “We want people to feel seen, but also inspired. We want them to see comedy as something they can do, because if we’re not in the industry, these stories aren’t going to be told.”
Looking ahead, the pair hope Sketchy Muslims will grow beyond a one-off show and be able to stage more live events, including stand-up comedy and networking opportunities for Muslim women in film and television.
“The dream is bigger writers’ rooms, more Muslim creatives, more opportunities,” says Sobka. “Why shouldn’t we have our own version of something like Saturday Night Live?”
Sketchy Muslims will be performing at Poplar Union, east London on Friday 8 and Saturday 9 May.
