For decades, Marvel movies and shows were filled with heroes from New York, Asgard, or far-off galaxies. That changed when Kamala Khan, a Pakistani-American teenager from New Jersey, became Marvel’s first Muslim character to get her own comic book series. Her story of juggling family, faith, and superpowers connected with readers who had never seen someone like themselves in a comic before.
In 2022, Kamala’s story jumped from paper to screen in the Disney+ series “Ms. Marvel.” Playing her was Iman Vellani, a young actress with real ties to Pakistan. Vellani was born in Karachi and moved to Canada with her family when she was just a year old, growing up in Markham, Ontario. Landing the role of Ms. Marvel was actually her very first acting job, and she has said in interviews that filming the show helped her reconnect with her own Pakistani roots and heritage.
The show didn’t stop at casting a Pakistani-Canadian lead. It also brought in talent from Pakistan itself. Actress Mehwish Hayat, already a well-known name in Pakistani film and television, joined the cast as Aisha, Kamala’s great-grandmother, whose story ties into the show’s flashback sequences set during the 1947 Partition of India.
Together, Vellani and Hayat helped bring authentic South Asian and Pakistani representation to one of the world’s biggest entertainment franchises. For many fans in Pakistan and the wider diaspora, seeing a hero who prays, eats samosas, and speaks Urdu at home felt like a long-overdue moment of recognition on a global stage.
