Immigrant of the Week: Kumail Nanjiani

The sixth and final season of Silicon Valley premiered on HBO on October 27th, 2019. One cannot talk about Silicon Valley without mentioning the character Dinesh Chugthai played by Kumail Nanjiani. Nanjiani was born in Karachi, Pakistan in 1978 where he grew up until the age of 18 when he moved to the United States to attend Grinnell College in Iowa. He majored in both computer science and philosophy.

Nanjiani started stand-up comedy while in college with many of his jokes coming from personal experiences about American culture through the lens of an immigrant. He has often spoken about his immigration process, citing the scariness of the United States immigration process one time reflecting on his father shaking the entire visa interview.

Although Nanjiani has been in the show since 2014, he broke through in the film industry in 2017 in the well-known film, The Big Sick. He wrote the movie about his relationship with his wife Emily V. Gordon. The American Film Institute chose the movie as one of the top 10 films of the year and was the third highest-grossing independent film in 2017. The film followed the cultural difficulties and differences faced by the interethnic couple after Emily fell ill. This story touched the lives of many and showed a modern tale of interethnic couples in America and the increasing diversity of relationships today.

I wish the best of luck to Nanjiani in his final season of Silicon Valley and future acting endeavors.