Aziz Ansari

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",[15] and he won the Jury Award for "Best Standup" at HBO's 2006 U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colorado.[16]

From left to right, Human Giant's Aziz Ansari, Rob Huebel, Jason Woliner, and Paul Scheer in May 2007

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 "Human Giant", 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.

In June 2008, Ansari was announced as the first cast hire for NBC's comedy Parks and Recreation.[17] The show debuted in April 2009 with Ansari playing one of the main characters, Tom Haverford, for the show's seven seasons. Ansari's performance was praised by critics, including Entertainment Weekly, TV Guide, and Yahoo! TV, which placed him in the No. 1 spot on its list of "TV MVPS".[18]

Starting in November, 2015, Ansari starred as Dev Shah in the Netflix original series Master of None, which he created and wrote with Parks and Recreation writer Alan Yang.[19][20] 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.[21] The show ran for two seasons.[22]

Ansari's performance in the show earned him a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy.[23] The series earned four Emmy nominations in 2016: Outstanding Comedy Series,[24] Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for Ansari and Yang, and Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series and Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for Ansari; Yang and Ansari won the Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for the episode "Parents".[25] Yang and Ansari were also honored with a Peabody Award in May 2016 for the series.[26][27]

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.[2][28][29][30][3]

Aziz Ansari at the 71st Annual Peabody Awards Luncheon in 2012

In addition to his work on Parks and Recreation, Ansari appeared on the HBO series Flight of the Conchords[17] 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.[31]

Ansari hosted the January 21, 2017 episode of Saturday Night Live, becoming the first person of Indian origin to do so.[32]

Ansari has made appearances in several films, including Get Him to the Greek, I Love You, Man, 30 Minutes or Less, This Is the End, 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.[33] Ansari is attached to star in another film with Danny McBride based on an idea from Ansari and 30 Rock writer Matt Hubbard.[34] 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.

Aziz Ansari at the 2012 Great GoogaMooga Festival in Prospect Park, Brooklyn

Ansari tours 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, his own comedy tour, the Glow in the Dark 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.[35]

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".[36]

In July 2010, Ansari began a new tour, Dangerously Delicious, which was in theaters across the United States; stops included the Bonnaroo Music Festival and 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.[37]

In March 2012, Ansari announced a new tour entitled "Buried Alive", with dates scheduled for Q2/Q3 2012.[37] 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.[38] His 2015 special, Aziz Ansari: Live at Madison Square Garden, also premiered on Netflix.

In February 2019, Ansari began a new stand-up tour entitled The Road to Nowhere, which was his official public return after the sexual-misconduct allegations and media backlash that put his career on a year-long hiatus in 2018.[39] The performance was a response to the events of that past year, and touched on topics ranging from cultural appropriation, racism to sexual misconduct.[40] His next comedy special Aziz Ansari: Right Now was released on July 9, 2019.[41]

In May 2019, Ansari teamed up with Dave Chappelle for three shows in Austin, Texas at the Paramount Theatre.[42]

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.[43]

In January 2018, a woman using the pseudonym "Grace" accused Ansari of sexual misconduct in an article on Babe.net, a website that was aimed at Millennial and Gen-Z readers. According to the article, the woman later texted Ansari expressing her discomfort, and he replied to her with an apology.[59][60][61]

Media critic Allison Davis, who later interviewed the article's author, Katie Way, called the Babe.net article "some combination of as-told-to and reported piece and morning-after group-chat gossip", saying that it became a "flashpoint of discussion about #MeToo".[62] There was disagreement in media commentary as to whether the incident described in the Babe article constituted sexual misconduct.[63] Some agreed with Ansari, who stated that the encounter "by all indications was completely consensual,"[64] while others stated that his actions were misogynistic, lacked affirmative consent, and spoke to a larger culture of harmful male expectations.[65][66] Others say that Ansari's actions did not constitute sexual misconduct and that his accuser's narrative trivializes the #MeToo movement against forms of sexual abuse.[67][68] Way was criticized for her handling of the story and for not following accepted journalistic standards.[69][70] For The Atlantic, James Hamblin wrote that these "stories of gray areas are exactly what [...] need to be told and discussed." "Even Ansari, the semi-ironic expert who authored a book on interpersonal communication [...] was seeing something totally different from his date, Grace", who felt coerced.[66] Ansari receded from the public eye following the incident and resumed performing stand-up comedy in May 2018.[71]

• Intimate Moments for a Sensual Evening (Comedy Central Records, 2010)
• Dangerously Delicious (Comedy Central Records, 2012)
• Buried Alive (Comedy Central Records, 2015)

• Intimate Moments for a Sensual Evening (released on Comedy Central and DVD, 2010)
• Aziz Ansari: Dangerously Delicious (released on Aziz's Website, 2012)
• Aziz Ansari: Buried Alive (released on Netflix, 2013)
• Aziz Ansari: Live at Madison Square Garden (released on Netflix, 2015)
• Aziz Ansari: Right Now (released on Netflix, 2019)