Who was the prankster beside the Oppenheimer team in BAFTA awards 2024? Details explored

The BAFTA Awards 2024 was always going to be a huge event, thanks to the great bulk of films that came out throughout 2023, some from very renowned and established directors as well. But there was also something eye-catching (and illegal) happening during the final presentation of the night, the Best Film award.

As spotted by many on BBC One, a YouTube prankster, who goes by the name of Lizwani, walked onto the stage alongside director Christopher Nolan, producers Emma Thomas and Charles Roven, and star Cillian Murphy, after Michael J. Fox announced that Oppenheimer had won the best film of the year award.

While not much is known about this YouTube celebrity, Lizwani is reported to have broken in several other big ceremonies, including the Fifa Ballon d’Or and Brit Awards in 2022.

Some fans discussing this on social media platforms like Reddit seem to indicate that Lizwani uses TikTok as the primary medium. According to reports, BAFTA has said they will take strong action against the prankster, in what could be an example-setting moment.

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Fans identify prankster as Lizwani as BAFTA moves towards "serious action"

Lizwani's Instagram story about breaching the BAFTA stage (Image via Instagram)

Trespassing on an award ceremony of this stature is more than a mere prank and always risks legal action. As for the Youtuber, who has been identified, thanks to fans on social media platforms, he has been reportedly apprehended by security right after he stepped down from the stage.

The Oppenheimer team was perhaps too caught up in the moment to notice Lizwani walking to the stage and standing behind Nolan and others. However, some fans caught this occurrence, and it even started a discussion on social media platforms like Reddit.

A comment thread from Reddit discussing Lizwani (Image via Reddit)

BAFTA has come out with strong criticism of the occurrence, with a spokesperson remarking that serious action will be taken against the prankster. The spokesperson said in a statement to Variety:

"A social media prankster was removed by security last night after joining the winners of the final award on stage — we are taking this very seriously, and don’t wish to grant him any publicity by commenting further."

BAFTA's attempts to shield the identity of this YouTuber and deliver further punishment have kept us from knowing more about him.

The prankster took an opportune moment to enter the stage without much fuss by walking in when Thomas accepted the best film award from Fox and was urging the rest of the Oppenheimer cast to join them on stage.

After exiting the stage, Lizwani was taken in by security. Since then, not much has been heard about him. It seems that some legal action may be taken against the prankster to ensure that this does not become a regular practice in the future.

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Interestingly, this is the first time anyone has invaded the BAFTA stage, and that too as a method of gaining social media clout. This is uncommon, but not unheard of in other ceremonies. The Oscars saw a stage invader as early as 1974, during a speech by David Niven.