Arif Zahir Lopes-Thrower (born April 15, 1994) is an American actor, musician, and Internet personality. His YouTube channel,Azerrz, has over 7 million subscribers^[4] and features voice impressions of a plethora of celebrities and cartoon characters,^[5] one most notably beingCleveland Brown from the television seriesFamily Guy. In 2021, Zahir would later become the official voice actor for Cleveland Brown in 2021, succeedingMike Henry, who had voiced the character beginning in 1999 before stepping down in 2021.

Zahir is of African-American and Cape Verdean descent and was born on April 15, 1994, inBerkeley, California. He was partially raised inNew Bedford,Massachusetts where he attended Nativity Preparatory School and Keith Middle School before moving back to California in 2007.^[6]

Zahir began doing voice impressions in middle school to impress his classmates. He originally made a YouTube channel in 2007 which focused on performing magic tricks.^[7] After doing so and finding success he started attendingHussian College's campus in Los Angeles. He later dropped out to spend more time focusing on his YouTube career.^[3]

Zahir created his YouTube channel in 2012 but posted his first video in 2013.^[4][8] He started out by posting comedic sketches, gaming videos, and videos of himself performing voice impressions of both cartoon characters and real celebrities.^[5][9][10] Zahir garnered initial success through his voice impressions which he started doing in 2011.^[11][12][13] One of the first voice impressions he did was ofCleveland Brown, whom he would go on to voice officially several years later.^[14][15][16]

Zahir landed his first acting role playing a character named Arif in the short filmNo One But Lydia. Starting in 2018, he became a recurring cast member onHow It Should Have Ended voicingBlack Panther / T'Challa.^[17] Through community challenges and his first viral hit with "Ted Plays Call of Duty" (which has over 20M+ views), Arif quickly grew his channel to over 6.5+ million subscribers and 650+ million views.^[18]

Zahir is also a musician, releasing music under the moniker4rif.^[19] He released his debut albumAt Last Sight on August 30, 2019.^[20] On April 29, 2020, he released a follow-upEP titledGo Gadget/Blues Clues in collaboration with rapper Dlngqnt.^[21]

On June 26, 2020,Mike Henry, who had voiced Cleveland Brown since 1999, announced he was stepping down and believed a person of color should inherit the role.^[22] On September 25, 2020, it was announced that Zahir would be voicing Cleveland beginning in season 20 ofFamily Guy.^[5]

As lead artist

List of singles as lead artist

As featured artist

List of singles as featured artist

• Arif Zahir atIMDb
• Arif Zahir's channel onYouTube
• Arif Zahir's music channel onYouTube

• 1994 births
• 20th-century African-American male actors
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• American male film actors
• American male pop singers
• American male television actors
• American male voice actors
• American musicians of Cape Verdean descent
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• Male actors from Berkeley, California
• Male actors from Massachusetts
• Musicians from Berkeley, California
• People from New Bedford, Massachusetts
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• YouTube channels launched in 2007
• YouTube channels launched in 2012

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