Maulik Pancholy

Maulik Navin Pancholy is an American actor and author born on January 18, 1974, in Dayton, Ohio, to Gujarati parents Gita Jayantilal and Navin Chimanlal Pancholy, whose family originates from Gujarat, with grandparents based in Ahmedabad. During his childhood, Pancholy lived in Ohio, Indiana, and Texas before his family settled in Tampa, Florida, where he completed junior high and high school at Berkeley Preparatory School, graduating in 1991. He went on to study theater at Northwestern University, earning his bachelor's degree in 1995, and later received a Master of Fine Arts from the Yale School of Drama in 2003.

Pancholy is widely recognized for his television work, including his recurring role as Jonathan on the NBC series 30 Rock and his voice performance as Baljeet Tjinder on Disney's Phineas and Ferb. He also portrayed Sanjay Patel on Showtime's Weeds and on Nickelodeon's Sanjay and Craig, and appeared as Neal in the first season of NBC's Whitney. Additional television credits include guest appearances on The Good Fight, The Good Wife, Elementary, Dynasty, Friends from College, The Sopranos, Law and Order: Criminal Intent, and The Comeback. In 2017, he appeared as Nambue, Chief Medical Officer of the USS Shenzhou, in the pilot episode of Star Trek: Discovery, which aired on September 24 of that year.

His stage career in New York City began with the Culture Project's production of Guantanamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom in 2004, followed by a workshop of Morbidity and Mortality at the Cherry Lane Theatre in 2005 and the lead role in India Awaiting at the Samuel Beckett Theatre. In January 2015, Pancholy joined the Broadway cast of Terrence McNally's It's Only a Play, replacing Rupert Grint when the production's run was extended. Washington, D.C. stage work includes the role of Katherina in the Shakespeare Theatre Company's all-male production of The Taming of the Shrew in 2016, and he starred as Kevin in the world premiere of Ken Urban's The Remains at the Studio Theatre in 2018. In 2019, Pancholy played Tommy in Bess Wohl's Grand Horizons at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, subsequently reprising the role in Second Stage's Broadway production at the Helen Hayes Theater. His Broadway credits span from 2014 to 2026 and also include Schmigadoon!

As an author, Pancholy published his debut novel, The Best at It, through Balzer and Bray/HarperCollins, a story centered on a gay, Indian American boy. The American Library Association named it a 2020 Stonewall Honor Book. His second novel, Nikhil Out Loud, released in 2022, follows eighth-grade theater students confronting homophobia in their community and received the 2023 Lambda Literary Award for Middle Grade Literature.

In his personal life, Pancholy came out as gay in a November 2013 interview with Out magazine, in which he discussed his partner of nine years, chef and caterer Ryan Corvaia. The two became engaged at the Taj Mahal in January 2014 and married in September of that year. Pancholy and Corvaia were among guests at a state dinner President Joe Biden hosted for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Pancholy speaks English, Gujarati, and Spanish and is also proficient in Hindi.

On April 25, 2014, President Barack Obama appointed Pancholy to the Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. He resigned from that position on February 25, 2017, along with nine other commission members, citing administrative actions by President Donald Trump that they stated conflicted with the commission's principles. Pancholy is the chair and co-founder of Act To Change, an anti-bullying nonprofit he helped launch during his tenure on the Obama commission, which was transitioned outside of the White House following the 2016 presidential election. He is also active with Asian Americans Advancing Justice Los Angeles, the New York City Anti-Violence Project, and OutRight Action International.