Just like his singing, Asif’s acting career began on his school stage, with first role being that of Indira Gandhi. “Being in an all boy school, I was most often given female parts to play”.

His tryst with professional theatre began in 1989 when he did a theatre workshop with the late Pearl Padamsee. He quit his four figure salaried job to be a part of Alyque Padamsee’s. “Othello”, In which he not only played a walk-on part, but also worked backstage as wardrobe assistant. His next theatre production was a children’s musical “Alibaba and Baablu the bear” directed by Raell Padamsee in which he played Alibaba’s son, Chotu, designed and executed all the costumes & even wrote the lyrics for some of the songs. Mahesh Dattani’s play on Siamese twins “Tara” directed once again by alyque Padamsee was Asif’s next play in which he played a starring role. “Asifali Beg has some touching, true moments as Tara’s mother…” wrote critic Jiten Merchant in The Times of India.

Asif then quit theatre for a few years because he felt he needed to make a living (“since theatre doesn’t pay”) but he couldn’t stay away for long and was back as costume designer for Hosi Vasunia production of “The Sound of Music”. Acting began again with Lilette Dubey’s musical montage of the Mahabharat “Jaya” in which he played the wicked Shakuni mama. This role won him some reviews and led to another “Baddie” part, that of one of the high priests in Rahul DeCunha’s production of “Jesus Christ Superstar” He also played the part of a person living with AIDS in “The Big A” directed by Madhulika Verma. Asif is currently rehearsing for new play scheduled for release in November. Yet again as the bad guy. So will films be next?? “Well I’ve done a few ad-films, I’m open to anything”. Says Asif optimistically.