For most of his career, Kumail Nanjiani has been asked to play the same type of brash nerd character that he perfected over six seasons on HBO’s ‘Silicon Valley.’ Then, a few years back, everything changed. The Pakistani-American comedian transformed his body to appear in the Marvel movie ‘Eternals’ and ever since, strange new doors have opened for him in Hollywood. One of those unexpected opportunities came when Natasha Lyonne reached out to him to play the bleach-blonde-haired, heavily tattooed Florida panhandle cop named Gator Joe on this week’s episode of her Peacock hit ‘Poker Face.’ At first, he thought she might have been joking. In this episode, Nanjiani talks about how he nailed the character’s very specific Southern accent only days before they started filming. Then, he looks back at the earlier part of his career, including how close he came to playing Abed on ‘Community,’ what he learned about “amoral” tech giants like Elon Musk through ‘Silicon Valley,’ and the deeply rewarding experience of bringing his real-life story to the screen in ‘The Big Sick.’ And he also discusses his long-awaited return to stand-up comedy with his first special in 12 years set to hit Hulu later this year.
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