The many layers of ‘Chippendales’ star Kumail Nanjiani
His Emmy-nominated lead performance as real-life strip club impresario turned killer Steve Banerjee in the Hulu limited series “Welcome to Chippendales†adds to the range stand-up comic-actor-writer-producer Kumail Nanjiani already has displayed in front of cameras and behind the scenes in Hollywood.
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From 2014-19, Nanjiani mostly sat behind a screen in portraying a dry-witted coder on the HBO comedy “Silicon Valley.â€
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With his wife, Emily V. Gordon, Nanjiani shared an original screenplay Academy Award nomination for “The Big Sick,†a semiautobiographical 2017 film in which he played a version of himself.
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Nanjiani’s “Chippendales†Emmy nomination is his second. In 2019, he was nominated for guest actor in a drama for his performance as a stand-up in the “Twilight Zone†reboot.
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Nanjiani and Gordon are executive producers of “Little America,†a BAFTA-nominated Apple TV+ anthology series highlighting the immigrant experience. Two eight-episode seasons have streamed so far.
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Alongside Issa Rae, his co-star in the 2020 Netflix romantic comedy “The Lovebirds,†and film director Gina Prince-Bythewood, Nanjiani is a mentor on Max’s revived, 2023 “Project Greenlight†series.
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Nanjiani, who is Pakistani American, played the first South Asian hero in a Marvel film, in “Eternals.†His performance drew less fanfare than his physical transformation into “jacked†status in preparation for the role.
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Nanjiani kept his physique under wraps in his breakthrough dramatic role in “Chippendales.†Amid the barely clothed, gyrating bodies on screen, it’s Nanjiani’s suit-wearing Banerjee who mesmerized, in his stillness, awkwardness and slow-burning resentment.
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