Kumail Nanjiani

Kumail Ali Nanjiani, born May 2, 1978, in Karachi, Pakistan, is a stand-up comedian, actor, and screenwriter who made his Broadway debut in 2024 in Mary, Mary. He holds a Screen Actors Guild Award and has received nominations for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and two Emmy Awards. In 2018, Time magazine included him on its list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Nanjiani grew up in Karachi as the first of two sons born to Shabana and Aijaz Nanjiani, a Sindhi Shia Muslim couple. BBC radio presenter Shereen Nanjiani is his second cousin. He completed his O-Levels at St. Michael's Convent School and his A-Levels at Karachi Grammar School, where his classmates included Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy. At age 18, he relocated to the United States and enrolled at Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa, graduating in 2001 with a double major in computer science and philosophy. He subsequently moved to Chicago and began performing stand-up comedy at open-mic events.

In 2007, Nanjiani wrote and staged an original autobiographical one-man show, performing it in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. After settling in New York, he made appearances on programs including Michael & Michael Have Issues and The Colbert Report, and in 2009 performed at the Just for Laughs comedy festival. In 2011, he co-launched a video game-themed podcast called The Indoor Kids, initially with Ali Baker and later with his wife, Emily V. Gordon. He also appeared regularly on Dan Harmon's podcast Harmontown, playing Dungeons & Dragons as a character named Chris de Burgh.

His television career expanded through a series of recurring and supporting roles. He played Pindar Singh, an agoraphobic fiction enthusiast, in the TNT series Franklin & Bash, and held recurring roles as Amir Larussa on the Adult Swim series Newsreaders and as Prismo on the animated series Adventure Time. He guest-starred on HBO's Veep as a statistician and appeared in episodes of Portlandia and Broad City. His Comedy Central special Beta Male aired in July 2013, and later that year Comedy Central announced The Meltdown with Jonah and Kumail, which he co-hosted with Jonah Ray beginning in July 2014.

Nanjiani's breakthrough came in April 2014 when he began playing Dinesh in the HBO comedy series Silicon Valley, a role he held through the show's conclusion in 2019. During the same period, he launched The X-Files Files, a weekly podcast dedicated to discussion of The X-Files, featuring writers, producers, actors, and directors from the series as guests. He also voiced Reggie in the video game The Walking Dead: Season Two and provided guest voices for Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero.

In 2017, Nanjiani co-wrote and starred in the romantic comedy film The Big Sick alongside Zoe Kazan, with the screenplay written together with Gordon. The film, based on Nanjiani and Gordon's own relationship, was selected by the American Film Institute as one of the top ten films of the year and earned Nanjiani and Gordon a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. It became the third-highest-grossing independent film of 2017, earning over $40 million. In 2018, he was invited to join both the actors and writers branches of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

In 2019, Nanjiani headlined the first episode of the CBS All Access revival of The Twilight Zone, earning a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series. That same year, he voiced the alien Pawny in Men in Black International and starred in the action comedy Stuber. He also wrote for and produced the Apple TV+ anthology series Little America, which premiered in January 2020 and focuses on stories from immigrants. In May 2020, he starred opposite Issa Rae in the Netflix comedy-chase film The Lovebirds, directed by Michael Showalter. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he and Gordon launched the podcast Staying In with Emily and Kumail, chronicling their experiences in isolation.

Nanjiani starred as Kingo in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Eternals, released November 5, 2021, and later appeared in the Disney+ miniseries Obi-Wan Kenobi. In 2022, he took the lead role of Somen "Steve" Banerjee in the Hulu miniseries Welcome to Chippendales, portraying the founder of the Chippendales dance troupe. The performance earned him a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie in 2023. He also voiced Kingo in the animated anthology series What If...? and appeared in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, released March 22, 2024. That same year, Nanjiani made his Broadway debut in Mary, Mary.