Desis at Emmys: Kumail Nanjiani Plays Nervous Bartender in a Skit; Mindy Kaling Joins B.J. Novak to Present an Award
- Celebrity chef Padma Lakshmi, as well as actor Himesh Patel, fail to win on television’s biggest night; a big win for Netflix docuseries “Love on the Spectrum” featuring Indian American Subodh Garg.
Indian American nominee, celebrity chef and model Padma Lakshmi, and British Indian actor Himesh Patel failed to win an Emmy at the awards gala held in Los Angeles yesterday (Sept. 12.) Lakshmi, host of Bravo’s “Top Chef,” was nominated in the Outstanding Host for a Reality or Competition Program.
Patel was nominated for Best Actor, Limited Series, or TV Movie for his role in “Station Eleven.” He plays the role of Jeevan Chaudhary in the HBO Max drama He was pitted against Colin Firth for “The Staircase,” Andrew Garfield for “Under the Banner of Heaven,” Oscar Isaac for “Scenes from a Marriage,” Sebastian Stan for “Pam & Tommy, Michael Keaton for “Dopesick,” who won the award.
For his maiden Emmy looks, Patel was seen in a patterned suit jacket with a black shirt and black pants. Speaking about “Station Eleven,” he said to Screen Rant that the role gave him an opportunity “to explore the apocalypse from an entirely different perspective.” Patel gained popularity as Tamwar Masood in the BBC soap “EastEnders.” The Quint describes Tamar Masood as “a geeky, Muslim boy who secretly wants to be a stand-up comic.” He was 17 when began working on the show in 2007.
Named along with Lakshmi in the best host category was the cast of Netflix’s “Queer Eye,” starring British Pakistani American fashion expert Tran France. The award was won by RuPaul from “RuPaul’s Drag Race.”Meanwhile, “Queer Eye,” a television franchise based upon a team of gay professionals giving lifestyle and fashion makeovers to guests, won an Emmy for Outstanding Structured Reality Program. It defeated the Netflix dating reality series “Love is Blind,” which catapulted Indian Americans —Deepti Vempati and Abhishek ‘Shake’ Chatterjee — into stardom.
France, a television personality and style maven on Netflix’s “Queer Eye,” was born Tanveer Safdar and grew up in a strict Pakistani Muslim family in South Yorkshire, England. He is one of the first openly gay South Asian men on a major show and one of the first out Muslim gay men on western television.
The highlight of the evening was a small bartender skit with Kumail Nanjiani and host Kenan Thompson. “The Big Sick” actor was the “honorary” bartender for the night and was panicking because he doesn’t know how to make any drinks (or do the Tom Cruise movie). The premise of the skit was a reunion between Thompson and Kel Mitchell, the lead actors of the American buddy comedy sitcom “Kenan & Kel.” There was also a cameo from “Ted Lasso” actor Jason Sudeikis. Nanjiani offered him bottle service instead of the three mojitos he ordered. And rather than leave a tip, he took a dollar bill out of the jar.
Indian American actor, writer and producer Mindy Ealing and her former
“The Office” co-star B.J. Novak made quite a statement on the Emmy stage. The pair presented the award for outstanding writing for a limited or anthology series or movie. The two reflected on their days working on 22 episodes a year as staff writers for the NBC comedy, calling today’s limited series’ writers “lazy sons of bitches.” They also poked fun at their “insanely complicated relationship,” raising speculations on social media about Novak being the father of Kaling’s children.
Nominated for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series was British actor Nick Mohammed for “Ted Lasso.” Mohammed, the son of an Indo-Trinidadian father and a Cyprus-born mother, plays waterboy-turned-coach Nate Shelley. After a few years of guest roles, he eventually became a regular on “Horne & Corden” in 2009. The most prominent role in his early career was that of Steve on “Reggie Perrin.” In the 2010s, he has been seen with recurring roles on “Gates,” “Drifters” and the third season of “The Job Lot.” His highest-profile film role prior to the debut of “Ted Lasso” was in “The Martian..” He was also seen as Mr. Love in “Hank Zipper.”
Among this year’s Emmys was the Hulu series “The Dropout,” which won the Best Lead Actress in a Limited Series for Amanda Seyfried for her portrayal of disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes. It also stars Naveen Andrews as Sunny Balwani, the ex-boyfriend and former business partner of Holmes.
In an earlier presentation, Netflix’s “Love on the Spectrum U.S.,” swept all three categories it was nominated for, taking home the Emmys for Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program, Picture Editing for an Unstructured Reality Program, and Casting for a Reality Program. The six-episode docuseries, which dropped on the streaming platform on May 18, follows people on the autism spectrum as they attempt to find love and explore the unpredictable world of dating and romantic relationships.
Among the cast was Indian American Subodh Garg of Long Beach, California, a Data Entry Assistant at Insight Examination Services, and a part-time Shipping and Receiving Clerk at UPS. During his time on the show, he found a partner in Rachel Osterbach. According to ScreenRant, the couple was still together when the series ended in June.