Nanjiani grew up in Karachi, the first of two sons of a SindhiShia Muslim couple Shabana and Aijaz Nanjiani.[6] The BBC radio presenter Shereen Nanjiani is his second cousin.[7][8][9] During his childhood, he lived in Karachi and attended St. Michael's Convent School for his O-Levels and graduated from Karachi Grammar School to complete his A-Levels, where he was the class-fellow of Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy. At 18, he moved to the U.S. and enrolled at Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa, where he graduated in 2001 with a double major in computer science and philosophy.[10][11][12] He then moved to Chicago and began performing stand-up comedy at open-mic events.[10]
Career
In 2007, Nanjiani wrote and staged an original autobiographical one-man show in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles.[10] After moving to New York, he continued to perform stand-up and made occasional appearances on shows including Michael & Michael Have Issues and The Colbert Report.[10] In 2009, he performed at the Just for Laughs comedy festival.[10] In 2011, Nanjiani and X-Play staffer Ali Baker began hosting a video game-themed podcast, titled The Indoor Kids. In late August the same year, Baker left the show and Nanjiani began hosting with his wife, Emily V. Gordon.[13] Until other commitments took over, he appeared regularly on Dan Harmon's podcast Harmontown, where he played Dungeons & Dragons with Harmon as a character named Chris de Burgh. He played a delivery man in the 2013 film The Kings of Summer.[14] In addition to guest-starring in comedy shows like Portlandia, Nanjiani was featured in a supporting role in the TNT series Franklin & Bash. He played the role of Pindar Singh, an agoraphobic fiction nerd working for the title characters.
Nanjiani guest-starred on HBO's Veep as a statistician. He had the recurring roles of Amir Larussa on Newsreaders and Prismo on Adventure Time. His Comedy Central special Beta Male aired in July 2013.[15] In late June 2013, Comedy Central announced the pickup of The Meltdown with Jonah and Kumail, hosted by Jonah Ray and Nanjiani.[16] The show, featuring Nerd Melt comedy regulars and various comedians, began airing in July 2014.[17] In April 2014, he began playing the character Dinesh in the HBO sitcom Silicon Valley.[12] He voiced Reggie in the video game The Walking Dead: Season Two.[18] In July 2014, Nanjiani hosted a weekly podcast titled The X-Files Files, dedicated to discussion and reminiscences about The X-Files. Each episode features Nanjiani and a guest, including former The X-Files writers, producers, actors and directors, in light-hearted banter about one or two episodes of the series.[19][20] On July 30, 2014, Nanjiani appeared on Ken Reid's TV Guidance Counselor Podcast.[21]
In 2017, Nanjiani starred in the romantic comedy film The Big Sick, which he wrote with Gordon.[26] The film is about their relationship, with Nanjiani playing himself and Zoe Kazan playing Gordon (renamed Emily Gardner). The film was one of the most acclaimed of 2017, and was chosen by American Film Institute as one of the top 10 films of the year and nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.[27][28] The film was also the third-highest-grossing independent film released in 2017, grossing over $40 million.[29]
In March 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Nanjiani and his wife Emily Gordon launched a podcast, Staying In with Emily and Kumail.[41] The series chronicles their experiences as a couple forced to live in isolation during the global pandemic. The podcast has been widely acclaimed in the media, as a welcome respite during a period of high anxiety.[42]GQ described it as "consistently endearing, actually useful, and often hilarious."[43]New York magazine relates that "all advice is shared via cute and charming banter."[44]
He starred in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Eternals, as Kingo, which was released on November 5, 2021.[45] Nanjiani received widespread attention and went viral[46] after sharing pictures of his body transformation for the shooting of Eternals in 2019.[47][48] Speaking with GQ, he noted how he has since become less comfortable to speak about his body due to the intense amount of attention it received online.[49][46] In March 2021, Nanjiani was announced as cast in an upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi series for Disney+.[50] In February 2020, Nanjiani signed on to star in The Independent, a political thriller to be directed by Amy Rice, though he ultimately dropped out of the role.[51]
On March 24, 2023, it was confirmed that Nanjiani had joined the cast of Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire.[53] He appeared in the film, released on March 22 of the following year, as the character Nadeem Razmaadi / Firemaster.
^Jung, E. Alex (October 12, 2021). "Kumail Nanjiani's Feelings". Vulture. Archived from the original on November 19, 2021. Retrieved November 19, 2021.
^ abc"Kumail Nanjiani (visual voices guide)". Behind the Voice Actors. Retrieved June 1, 2024. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its opening and/or closing credits and/or other reliable sources of information.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)