Kumail Nanjiani
A comedic jack of all trades, Kumail Nanjiani never forgot his Pakistani roots even while riffing on the all-American life he had created for himself. He wrote for some of the hippest and most ground-breaking TV comedies of his era, and still found time to co-host a podcast about the nerd world of video games while putting together a weekly live show that helped put Los Angeles back on the map of stand-up. Born in Karachi, Pakistan in 1978, Nanjiani moved to Iowa with his family when he was 18. In college, he first discovered stand-up by listening to his uncle's tapes of comedy acts, and he became obsessed. By his junior year in college he began doing his own stand-up routines. His major in computer sciences, gave him a solid nerd-culture base for his act as he drifted slowly into the comedy world of New York City. He worked briefly as a writer on "Saturday Night Live" (NBC 1975- ), but his work on the short-lived sketch program "Michael and Michael Have Issues" (Comedy Central 2009) gave him his first taste of acting. The producers wanted the writers to also have bit parts on the show, and Nanjiani discovered that the acting informed his writing, and the writing improved his acting. Along with his burgeoning stand-up career, Nanjiani had small roles in the films "Life As We Know It" (2010) and "The Five Year Engagement" (2012). During this era, Nanjiani moved from New York to Los Angeles, where podcast impresario Chris Hardwick invited him to create a show about comic books. Since he knew video games much better, he convinced Hardwick to center the show on video game obsessions. The podcast, The Indoor Kids, was co-hosted by Nanjiani's wife, comic and writer Emily V. Gordon. As if the television appearances, movies and podcasts weren't enough, Nanjiani also started co-hosting a weekly stand-up show in the back room of a Los Angeles comic book store called The Meltdown alongside fellow comic Jonah Ray. The show, which featured rising and known comics doing new, improvisational and experimental material, was so successful that in 2014 Comedy Central signed it up to become one of the network's live comedy showcases; the shows ended in 2016 when the pair's other duties began taking too much of their time. Nanjiani also continued to act, appearing regularly as various characters on Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein's offbeat comedy series "Portlandia" (IFC 2011- ) and taking on a co-starring role in Mike Judge's satirical series "Silicon Valley" (HBO 2014- ). Nanjiani and Gordon branched into screenwriting with "The Big Sick" (2017), an autobiographical comedy about their courtship that starred Nanjiani as himself and Zoe Kazan as Emily.
Photos
Kumail Nanjiani
Filmography
Movies
Credit | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
42% |
|
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire | Unknown (Character) | $112.7M | 2024 |
73% |
|
Migration | Mack (Voice) | $127.3M | 2023 |
47% |
|
Eternals | Kingo (Character) | $164.9M | 2021 |
45% |
|
Death to 2020 | Unknown (Character) | - | 2020 |
66% |
|
The Lovebirds |
Jibran (Character), Executive Producer |
- | 2020 |
15% |
|
Dolittle | Plimpton (Voice) | $77.0M | 2020 |
43% |
|
Stuber | Stu (Character) | $22.4M | 2019 |
23% |
|
Men in Black: International | Pawny (Voice) | $80.0M | 2019 |
55% |
|
Duck Butter | Jake (Character) | $6.3K | 2018 |
88% |
|
Poop Talk | Self | - | 2017 |
56% |
|
The LEGO NINJAGO Movie | Jay (Voice) | $59.3M | 2017 |
98% |
|
The Big Sick |
Kumail (Character), Screenwriter, Executive Producer |
$42.9M | 2017 |
25% |
|
Fist Fight | Mehar (Character) | $32.2M | 2017 |
22% |
|
The Late Bloomer | Rich (Character) | - | 2016 |
36% |
|
Flock of Dudes | Ro (Character) | - | 2016 |
57% |
|
Brother Nature | Riggleman (Character) | - | 2016 |
38% |
|
Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates | Keanu (Character) | $46.0M | 2016 |
32% |
|
Addicted to Fresno | Damon (Character) | - | 2015 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Loaded | Raza (Character) | - | 2015 |
14% |
|
Hot Tub Time Machine 2 | Brad (Character) | $12.3M | 2015 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Burning Love 3: Burning Down the House | Unknown (Character) | - | 2014 |
No Score Yet |
|
Burning Love 2 | Zakir (Character) | - | 2014 |
16% |
|
Sex Tape | Punit (Character) | $38.5M | 2014 |
59% |
|
Milo | Bobbi (Character) | - | 2013 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Arrangement | Alfred Dalton (Character) | - | 2013 |
30% |
|
Life as We Know It | Simon (Character) | $53.4M | 2010 |
TV
Credit | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
97% | 89% | Only Murders in the Building | Unknown (Guest Star) | 2024 |
No Score Yet | 42% | Jimmy Kimmel Live! | Guest | 2009 2016-2017 2019-2024 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Jennifer Hudson Show | Guest | 2023-2024 |
86% | No Score Yet | Project Greenlight: A New Generation |
Executive Producer, Host |
2023 |
71% | 67% | Welcome to Chippendales |
Somen "Steve" Banerjee (Character), Executive Producer |
2022-2023 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | 20/20 | Self | 2022 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Talk | Guest | 2022 |
No Score Yet | 18% | The Late Late Show With James Corden | Guest | 2015-2018 2020 2022 |
97% | 85% | Little America |
Executive Producer, Writer |
2020 2022 |
No Score Yet | 50% | The Late Show With Stephen Colbert | Guest | 2016-2017 2020 2022 |
No Score Yet | 55% | The Kelly Clarkson Show |
Guest, Host |
2022 |
No Score Yet | 12% | The View | Guest | 2017 2022 |
No Score Yet | 61% | Late Night With Seth Meyers | Guest | 2014-2015 2017 2020-2022 |
82% | 61% | Obi-Wan Kenobi | Haja (Character) | 2022 |
85% | 76% | The Simpsons | Theo (Guest Voice) | 2022 |
97% | 71% | The Boys Presents: Diabolical | Vik (Character) | 2022 |
74% | 77% | Murderville | Unknown (Guest Star) | 2022 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Ellen DeGeneres Show | Guest | 2018-2021 |
No Score Yet | 44% | The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon | Guest | 2017 2021 |
82% | 62% | Bless the Harts |
Jesus (Guest Voice), Unknown (Voice), Unknown (Guest Star) |
2019-2021 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Close Up With The Hollywood Reporter | Guest | 2017 2020 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Conan | Guest | 2011-2020 |
94% | 93% | Silicon Valley | Dinesh (Character) | 2014-2019 |
No Score Yet | 79% | Good Talk With Anthony Jeselnik | Guest | 2019 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Hot Ones | Guest | 2019 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Desus & Mero | Guest | 2019 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen | Guest | 2017 2019 |
67% | 44% | The Twilight Zone | Samir Wassan (Character) | 2019 |
94% | 81% | Portlandia | Unknown (Guest Star) | 2011-2018 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Variety Studio: Actors on Actors | Guest | 2018 |
No Score Yet | 57% | Saturday Night Live | Host | 2017 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Harry | Guest | 2017 |
No Score Yet | 88% | At Midnight With Chris Hardwick | Guest | 2017 |
41% | 61% | Chelsea | Guest | 2017 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Meltdown With Jonah and Kumail |
Executive Producer, Host |
2014-2016 |
No Score Yet | 89% | Bob's Burgers | Skip (Guest Voice) | 2014 2016 |
74% | 86% | The X-Files | Pasha (Guest Star) | 2016 |
100% | 94% | Adventure Time | Prismo (Guest Voice) | 2012 2014-2016 |
No Score Yet | 81% | Last Week Tonight With John Oliver | Himself (Guest Star) | 2015 |
88% | 88% | Community | Lapari (Guest Star) | 2014-2015 |
91% | 84% | Archer | Farooq Ashkani (Guest Voice) | 2015 |
99% | 87% | Broad City | Benny Calitri (Guest Star) | 2015 |
61% | 84% | Franklin & Bash |
Pindar Singh (Character), Unknown (Guest Star) |
2011-2014 |
100% | 90% | Garfunkel and Oates | Unknown (Guest Star) | 2014 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Larry King Now | Guest | 2014 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Pete Holmes Show | Guest | 2013-2014 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Funny as Hell | Unknown (Character) | 2014 |
No Score Yet | 80% | King of the Nerds | Unknown (Guest Star) | 2014 |
No Score Yet | 81% | Drunk History | Unknown (Guest Star) | 2013 |
93% | 90% | Veep | Statistician (Guest Star) | 2013 |
67% | No Score Yet | Traffic Light | Unknown (Guest Star) | 2011 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | John Oliver's New York Stand-Up Show | Unknown (Character) | 2011 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Late Night With Jimmy Fallon | Guest | 2010 |