Borat, 20 years on: Sacha Baron Cohen and Isla Fisher at the London afterparty, October 2006

October 22, 2026

Sacha Baron Cohen in a dark suit and open white shirt walking hand in hand with Isla Fisher in a short black dress on a London street at night, October 2006.

Twenty years ago this week I photographed Sacha Baron Cohen and Isla Fisher arriving at the afterparty for the London premiere of Borat.

The premiere was held at the Odeon West End in Leicester Square on 25 October 2006, a week before the film opened in UK cinemas on 2 November. That evening I was working the pavement outside the afterparty at the 24 club. Premiere nights like this one filled my diary in those years.

My files show how short it was. The two frames of Baron Cohen and Fisher were taken one second apart, at 8.14pm by my camera's clock, on a Nikon D2H. One is wide, with the street and the parked vans behind them. The other is closer. Fisher is in a short black dress and Baron Cohen in a dark suit and an open white shirt, and they are walking in hand in hand. Three minutes later I photographed the television presenter Daisy Donovan arriving with the writer Dan Mazer.

Twenty years later Sacha Baron Cohen is back with Ali G. Ali G: Who Iz I? opens in UK cinemas on Friday 23 October 2026, and it is his first film as a director.

My photography years ran from 1999 to 2014, and the pictures from those nights are now licensed through Backgrid UK. If you would like to use these three frames, the details are below.

The pictures

  1. Sacha Baron Cohen and Isla Fisher arrive at the Borat London premiere afterparty, 25 October 2006.

  2. Sacha Baron Cohen and Isla Fisher, a closer frame from the same moment.

  3. Daisy Donovan and Dan Mazer arrive at the afterparty.

Credit: Charlie Pycraft / BACKGRID. Licensing: Backgrid UK Sales, backgrid_uksales@shutterstock.com