Aziz Ansari

Aziz Ismail Ansari (born February 23, 1983) is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He played Tom Haverford on the NBC series Parks and Recreation (2009-2015) and created and starred in the Netflix series Master of None (2015-2021), for which he won several acting and writing awards, including two Emmys and a Golden Globe, which was the first award received by an Asian American actor for acting on television.

Ansari began performing comedy in New York City while a student at NYU Stern in 2000. He later co-created and starred in the MTV sketch comedy show Human Giant. As a stand-up comedian, he released his first comedy special, Intimate Moments for a Sensual Evening, in January 2010 on Comedy Central Records. His first book, Modern Romance: An Investigation, was released in June 2015. In July 2019, Ansari released his fifth comedy special Aziz Ansari: Right Now, which was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album.

Ansari was born in Columbia, South Carolina, to Indian immigrants from the state of Tamil Nadu, and grew up in Bennettsville, South Carolina. He graduated from the New York University Stern School of Business in 2004 with a Bachelor of Business degree in marketing. In 2005, Rolling Stone included him in their annual "Hot List" as their choice for the "Hot Standup", and he won the Jury Award for "Best Standup" at HBO's 2006 U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colorado. In 2018 he won a Golden Globe for best actor in a TV comedy for Master of None, making him the first Asian-American actor to win a Golden Globe for acting in television.