Three years ago Bilal Zafar was scared to even speak in public, let alone infront of a crowd of joke-hungry comedy fans.

But on Sunday the Wanstead stand-up took to the stage at Leicester Square Theatre and was named Top of the Bill at the New Acts of the Year Showcase (NATYS).

The 24-year-old impressed the audience and judging panel with his show CAKES which is a tale of how he caused social media outrage amongst Islamaphobes with a quip about opening a Muslim only cake shop.

Bilal decided to use the incident to tackle racism and has already won the Comedy Cafe New Act Competition in London and the Rawhide Raw New Act Competition in Liverpool Speaking about his NATYS triumph the former Wanstead High School pupil says: "I'm obviously very happy with winning such a prestigious competition.

"I was just happy to be in the final, where so many legendary British comedians that I love have been before.

"I still feel a little bit overwhelmed and am very excited to see where this could lead."

Details: Twitter @zafarcakes, bilalzafarcomedy.com

See our interview with him here.