Aziz Ansari

Aziz Ismail Ansari (/ənˈsɑːri/; born February 23, 1983 in Columbia, South Carolina) is an Indian-American actor, writer, producer, director, and comedian. He is known for his role as Tom Haverford on the NBC series Parks and Recreation (2009–2015), and as creator and star of the Netflix series Master of None (2015–) for which he won several acting and writing awards, including two Emmys and a Golden Globe for Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy. With his Golden Globe win, Ansari became the very first Indian American and Asian American actor to win a Golden Globe for acting in television.

Ansari began his career performing stand-up comedy in New York City in mid-2000 while attending New York University. In 2007, he created and starred in the MTV sketch comedy show Human Giant, which ran for two seasons. This led to acting roles in feature films, including Funny People; I Love You, Man; Observe and Report; and 30 Minutes or Less.

As a stand-up comedian, Ansari released his debut comedy special, Intimate Moments for a Sensual Evening, in January 2010 on Comedy Central Records, and tours nationally between acting commitments. In 2010 and 2011, he performed his Dangerously Delicious tour, which was self-released for download on his website in March 2012 and debuted on Comedy Central in May 2012. He completed his third major tour, Buried Alive, in the summer of 2013. His fourth comedy special, Live at Madison Square Garden, was released on Netflix in 2015. His first book, Modern Romance: An Investigation, was released in June 2015. He was included in the Time 100 list of most influential people in 2016.

Early life

Aziz Ansari was born in Columbia, South Carolina, to a Tamil Muslim family from Tamil Nadu, India. Ansari grew up in Bennettsville, South Carolina, where he attended Marlboro Academy as well as the South Carolina Governor's School for Science and Mathematics. He graduated from the New York University Stern School of Business with a degree in marketing. His mother is an obstetrician and gynecologist and his father, Shoukath, is a gastroenterologist. Both Fatima and Shoukath have appeared in seasons 1 and 2 of Master of None.

Career

Early career

Ansari frequently performed at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, as well as weekly shows such as Invite Them Up. In 2005, Rolling Stone included him in their annual "Hot List" as their choice for the "Hot Standup", and he won the Jury Award for "Best Standup" at HBO's 2006 U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colorado.

Human Giant

Around the summer of 2005, Ansari began collaborating with fellow comedians Rob Huebel and Paul Scheer (both from the improv troupe Respecto Montalban), as well as director Jason Woliner to make short films. The first series created by the group was Shutterbugs, which followed Huebel and Ansari as cutthroat child talent agents. This was followed up by the Illusionators, which starred Ansari and Scheer as Criss Angel–style goth magicians. In mid-2006, MTV greenlit a sketch series from the group, which debuted April 5, 2007. The show ran for two seasons and the group was offered a third season, but they opted to pursue other opportunities.

Parks and Recreation

In June 2008, Ansari was announced as the first cast hire for NBC's comedy Parks and Recreation. The show debuted in April 2009 with Ansari playing Tom Haverford, an underachieving government official with extreme self-confidence and dreams of being successful. He was a main character of the show for its seven seasons. Ansari's performance has received praise from critics, including Entertainment Weekly naming him one of 2009's "Breakout TV Stars", TV Guide naming him a "Scene Stealer", and Yahoo! TV placing him in the No. 1 spot on its list of "TV MVPS".

Master of None

Ansari stars as Dev Shah in the Netflix original series Master of None, created and written with Parks and Recreation writer Alan Yang. Ansari directed several episodes of the series. The 10-episode series premiered on November 6, 2015, to very positive reviews. James Poniewozik of The New York Times called the show "the year's best comedy straight out of the gate" and praised its genre-crossing appeal.

In November 2016, Ansari writes about his mother and father following 'Master of None'. In his post Ansari opens up about how he felt like a “complete piece of rubbish” for not visiting them in South Carolina as much as he could have.

Ansari's performance in the show earned him a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy. The series earned four Emmy nominations in 2016: Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for Ansari and Yang, and Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series and Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Seriesfor Ansari; Yang and Ansari won the Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for the episode "Parents". Yang and Ansari were also honored with a Peabody Award in May 2016 for the series.

The show was renewed for a second season, which was released on May 12, 2017. The second season has also received strong reviews and has a 100% "Certified Fresh" ranking on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.

In 2018 Ansari won a Golden Globe for best actor in a TV comedy for the show; this made him the first Asian-American actor to win a Golden Globe for acting in television.

MTV Movie Awards

On June 6, 2010, Ansari hosted the 2010 MTV Movie Awards. The show opened with a spoof of the film Precious with Ansari appearing as Aziz "Precious" Ansari. Ansari also created the short film Stunt Kidz, which reunited him with his Human Giant castmates. A second short film was also made with actor Zach Galifianakis in which Ansari portrayed Taavon, Galifianakis' "swagger coach". He accepted Galifianakis' award for Best Comedic Performance in character as Taavon. Ansari also performed a musical tribute to the film Avatar in the style of singer R. Kelly.

Other television work

In addition to his work on Parks and Recreation, Ansari appeared on the HBO series Flight of the Conchords as an eccentric fruit vendor who had difficulty telling the difference between Australians and New Zealanders. He had a recurring role in season eight of the ABC sitcom Scrubs as Ed, a new intern at the hospital. Ansari's character was written off the show so he could work on Parks and Recreation. Ansari also has a recurring role on the animated comedy Bob's Burgers as Darryl.

In August 2011, Ansari made a cameo appearance in the music video for "Otis" by Jay-Z and Kanye West from their collaborative album Watch the Throne.

Ansari hosted the January 21, 2017 episode of Saturday Night Live, becoming the first person of Indian origin to do so.

Film career

Ansari has made appearances in several films, including Get Him to the Greek, I Love You, Man, 30 Minutes or Less, and Observe and Report. In 2009, Ansari appeared in the Judd Apatow film Funny People. Apatow liked Ansari's character, "Randy", and commissioned him and Human Giant collaborator Jason Woliner to create online shorts centered around his character, to promote the film. These shorts proved successful and the character became the subject of one of the film ideas Ansari and Woliner are developing for Apatow Productions. Two other ideas in development are Let's Do This, a road movie about two motivational speakers, and an untitled film about two disgraced astronauts who must return to space to clear their names. Ansari is attached to star in another film with Danny McBride based on an idea from Ansari and 30 Rockwriter Matt Hubbard. In April 2010, it was announced that Ansari would star in the film 30 Minutes or Less. The film was directed by Ruben Fleischer and co-starred Jesse Eisenberg and McBride. The film was released on August 12, 2011.

Stand-up comedy

Amongst various acting commitments, Ansari has continued performing and touring as a stand-up comedian. In 2006 and 2007, he toured with the Comedians of Comedy and Flight of the Conchords. In late 2008 and early 2009, Ansari headlined his own comedy tour, the Glow in the Dark Tour. The material on this tour became the basis for a DVD/CD special for Comedy Central. The set, titled Intimate Moments for a Sensual Evening, aired January 17, 2010, with a CD/LP/DVD release on January 19.

Ansari's comedy style tends to focus on aspects of his personal life. "I like talking about things that are going on in my life, because that's always going to be different and original", he says. "No one else is gonna be talking about my personal experiences".

In July 2010, Ansari began a new tour, Dangerously Delicious, which was in theaters across the United States; stops included the Bonnaroo Music Festivaland Carnegie Hall in New York City. The tour wrapped with a filming for a special, Dangerously Delicious at the Warner Theatre in Washington, D.C., in June 2011. This special was released on his website in March 2012 for download or stream.

In March 2012, Ansari announced a new tour entitled "Buried Alive", with dates scheduled for Q2/Q3 2012. A third stand-up special, Aziz Ansari: Buried Alive, was filmed during the tour at the Merriam Theater in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and premiered on Netflix on November 1, 2013. His 2015 special, Aziz Ansari: Live at Madison Square Garden, also premiered on Netflix.

Writing

Ansari's book, Modern Romance: An Investigation, was released on June 16, 2015. The book is about the comedic pitfalls of dating in the modern world and was written with sociologist Eric Klinenberg.

Charity work

In 2012, Ansari played a talking goat in an animated video for Oxfam America to encourage donations.

Following the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013, Ansari performed a benefit for the victims at the Wilbur Theater in Boston, Massachusetts. All ticket proceeds benefited The One Fund & The Officer Richard Donohue Fund.

Personal life

Ansari described himself as "not religious" on Twitter. He was raised as Muslim by his parents.

Ansari is currently dating danish physicist Serena Campbell and was in a relationship with professional chef Courtney McBroom from 2014 to January 2016.

He has self-identified as a feminist, saying his girlfriend has helped influence him. Ansari also incorporated an episode about feminism titled "Ladies and Gentlemen" in Master of None. In an interview in 2015, he spoke about the episode's meaningfulness to him saying "I thought it was interesting that this is happening, yet so many people are unaware of it. And the problem is people aren't talking about it. What I've learned, as a guy, is to just ask women questions and listen to what they have to say. Go to your group of female friends and ask them about times they've experienced sexism at their job, and you'll get blown away by the things they tell you."

Ansari is a "foodie" (although he dislikes the term); he and his friends Eric Wareheim and Jason Woliner have formed what they called "The Food Club", which involves them dressing up in suits and captain hats and rewarding restaurants with "Food Club" plaques. The plaques have their faces engraved along with the words: "The Food Club has dined here and deemed it plaque-worthy". He explained to Vanity Fair, "It's a really serious-looking plaque and all of the restaurants we've given it to have put it front and center. It's funny because people will walk into a restaurant and be like, 'What the fuck is the Food Club? Who are these guys etched in gold?'" They also produced a tongue-in-cheek video about the club for Jash, filming them debating whether or not restaurants were plaque-worthy.

Ansari was a close friend of the late comedian Harris Wittels and they frequently worked together. He has a brother, Aniz Adam Ansari, who co-wrote an episode of Master of None.

Sexual misconduct controversy

In January 2018, a woman using the pseudonym 'Grace' accused Ansari of sexual misconduct in an article on Babe.net. The article was met with a polarized response among commentators and the public with disagreement as to whether the incident described in the Babe article constituted sexual misconduct. Ansari stated that the encounter "by all indications was completely consensual," but critics have stated that his actions were misogynist, lacked affirmative consent, and spoke to a larger culture of harmful male expectations. Others say that Ansari's actions did not constitute sexual misconduct and that his accuser's narrative trivializes the larger movement against forms of sexual abuse. In an article for The Atlantic, Caitlin Flanagan wrote that the narrative in Babe was revenge porn. HLN host Ashleigh Banfield called Ansari's accuser's actions "appalling" and said she damaged the #MeToo movement.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2006	School for Scoundrels	Classmate
2008	The Rocker	Aziz
2009	Funny People	Randy Springs
	Observe and Report	Saddamn
	I Love You, Man	Eugene
2010	Get Him to the Greek	Matty Briggs
2011	30 Minutes or Less	Chet
	What's Your Number?	Jay	Voice
2012	Ice Age: Continental Drift	Squint	Voice
	Cruel Summer		Short
2013	Epic	Mub	Voice
	This Is the End	Himself
2014	Date and Switch	Marcus
	Food Club	Captain Ansari	Short
2017	The Problem with Apu75	Himself	Documentary
2025	Bubble Guppies: The Movie	Fulgur	Voice
2025	Daily Dose of Hydro's Life Lost World: The Movie	Atlas "Floop" Jalmeta	Voice

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2004	Uncle Morty's Dub Shack	MC Bricklayer	Episode: "Didja Listen to My Demo?"
2007	Flight of the Conchords	Sinjay	Episode "Drive By"
2007–08	Human Giant	Various roles	Also co-creator, writer, executive producer. 2 seasons
2008	Worst Week	Morgue employee	Episode: "Pilot"
2009	Reno 911!	Insurance representative	3 episodes
2009	Scrubs	Ed Dhandapani	4 episodes
2009–15	Parks and Recreation	Tom Haverford	Main cast, 7 seasons
2010	Intimate Moments for a Sensual Evening	Himself	TV special
2010	The Life & Times of Tim	Gabe	Episode: "Nagging Blonde/Tim & the Elephant"
2012	Dangerously Delicious	Himself	TV special
2012	NTSF:SD:SUV::	The Toucher	Episode: "Prairie Dog Companion"
2012–2018	Bob's Burgers	Darryl	Voice 10 episodes
2013	The Venture Bros.	Martin	Voice Episode: "What Color Is Your Cleansuit?"
2013	Comedy Bang! Bang!	Himself	Episode: "Aziz Ansari Wears A Charcoal Blazer"
2013	The Comedy Central Roast of James Franco	Roaster (himself)	TV special
2013	The Getaway	Host	Episode: "Aziz Ansari in Hong Kong"
2013	Buried Alive	Himself	TV special
2013	Wander Over Yonder	Westley	Voice Episode: "The Little Guy"
2013	Arcade Fire in Here Comes The Night Time	Li'l Bud	TV special
2013–14	Ben 10: Omniverse	Billy Billions	Voice 2 episodes
2013–15	The League	Dr. Hector Rocha	2 episodes
2013–15	Adventure Time	DMO	Voice 3 episodes
2015	Kroll Show	Sly Dufrense	Episode: "Body Bouncers"
2015	Major Lazer	Goosh	Voice Episode: "I'm Gonna Git You Suckoid"
2015	Live at Madison Square Garden	Himself	TV special
2015–2017	Master of None	Dev Shah	Also co-creator, executive producer, writer, director. 2 seasons
2016	Animals.	Charles	Voice Episode: "Dogs."
2017	Saturday Night Live	Himself/Host	Episode: "Aziz Ansari/Big Sean"
2018	Ugly Delicious	Himself	Episode: "Pizza."

Awards and nominations

In 2016, Ansari was the recipient of Smithsonian Magazine's American Ingenuity Award for Performing Arts. In 2017, Rolling Stone ranked Aziz Ansari 49th in their list of greatest stand-up comedians of all time.

Year	Award	Category	Nominated work	Result
2009	Denver Film Critics Society Award	Best Acting Ensemble	I Love You, Man	Nominated
2010	Teen Choice Award	Choice Comedian		Nominated
2012	Poppy Awards	Best Supporting Actor, Comedy	Parks and Recreation	Nominated
2013	NAACP Image Award	Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series		Nominated
2014	American Comedy Award	Best Comedy Supporting Actor – TV79		Nominated
		Comedy Special of the Year80	Aziz Ansari: Buried Alive	Nominated
	BTVA Voice Acting Award	Breakthrough Voice Actor of the Year		Nominated
		Best Male Vocal Performance in a Feature Film in a Supporting Role	Epic	Nominated
	Young Hollywood Award	Cuz You're Funny81		Nominated
	Variety Power of Comedy Award82			Won
2016	Golden Globe Award	Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy22	Master of None	Nominated
	Critics' Choice Television Award	Best Actor in a Comedy Series83		Nominated
		Best Comedy Series83		Won
	Dorian Award	TV Comedy of the Year		Nominated
	Gold Derby TV Award	Best Comedy Series		Nominated
		Best Comedy Lead Actor		Nominated
	NAACP Image Award	Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series		Nominated
		Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series		Nominated
	Online Film & Television Association Award	Best Actor in a Comedy Series		Nominated
		Best Direction in a Comedy Series		Nominated
		Best Writing in a Comedy Series		Nominated
	Peabody Award8426			Won
	Primetime Emmy Award	Outstanding Comedy Series		Nominated
		Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series85		Nominated
		Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series85 (shared with Alan Yang)		Won
		Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series85		Nominated
	TCA Award	Individual Achievement in Comedy		Nominated
		Outstanding Achievement in Comedy		Nominated
		Outstanding New Program		Nominated
2017	People's Choice Awards	Favorite Premium Series Actor86		Nominated
	Primetime Emmy Award	Outstanding Comedy Series		Nominated
		Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series		Nominated
		Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series85 (shared with Lena Waithe)		Won
	TCA Award	Individual Achievement in Comedy		Nominated
		Outstanding Achievement in Comedy		Nominated
	Golden Globe Award	Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy		Won
	Screen Actors Guild Award	Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series		Nominated