Aziz Ansari (born February 23, 1983) is an American actor and comedian. He is best known as one of the stars of the critically acclaimed sketch comedy series Human Giant on MTV, for which he is also a writer and executive producer. Ansari now appears in a new NBC series, Parks and Recreation , from producers of The Office .

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Personal life

Ansari was born in Columbia, South Carolina to Muslim Indian Tamil parents. He graduated from the South Carolina Governor's School for Science and Mathematics.

Ansari graduated in 2004 from the Leonard N. Stern School of Business at New York University, where he majored in Marketing. He resides in Los Angeles.

Career

Stand-up comedy

Ansari began his career performing stand-up comedy in New York City while attending college at New York University. He frequently performed at Upright Citizen's Brigade Theatre. In 2005, Rolling Stone included him in their annual "Hot List" as their choice for the "Hot Standup" ^[1] and he won the Jury Award for "Best Standup" at HBO's 2006 U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colorado. ^[2] He occasionally tours colleges and music festivals and has also toured with the Comedians of Comedy and Flight of the Conchords. In late 2008, he announced his Glow in the Dark Standup Tour which ran until January 2009. In 2009, Ansari announced that he would be filming a DVD/special for Comedy Central on July 1st.

Human Giant

Around the summer of 2005, Ansari began collaborating with fellow comedians Rob Huebel and Paul Scheer (both of the famed improv troupe Respecto Montalban), as well as director Jason Woliner to make short films. The first series created by the group was Shutterbugs, which followed Huebel and Ansari as cutthroat child talent agents. This was followed up by the Illusionators, which starred Ansari and Scheer as Criss Angel-style goth magicians. In mid-2006, MTV greenlit a sketch series from the group which debuted April 5, 2007. The show completed two seasons. The group was offered a third season, but was unable to accept due to other commitments.

Further appearances

He has appeared on the HBO series Flight of the Conchords . ^[3] He appeared in the films Observe and Report with Seth Rogen and I Love You, Man with Paul Rudd and Jason Segel. Ansari also had a recurring role in Season 8 of the ABC sitcom Scrubs as Ed Dhandapani, a new intern to the hospital. In the summer of 2009, Ansari appeared in the Judd Apatow film Funny People with Adam Sandler and Rogen as an energetic stand-up comedian named Randy.

Filmography

Films

• Funny People (2009)
• Observe and Report (2009)
• I Love You, Man (2009)
• The Rocker (2008)
• School for Scoundrels (2006)

Television

• Reno 911! (2009, 3 episodes)
• Parks and Recreation as Tom Haverford
• Scrubs (2009) as Ed Dhandapani (4 episodes)
• Worst Week(2008)
• Human Giant (2007-present)
• Flight of the Conchords (1 episode)

References

1. "Hot Standup", ''Rolling Stone''
2. HBO's Comedy Fest announces winners, HBO press release, festivalfocus.org, 12 March 2006.
3. Schneider, Michael. Aziz Ansari hired for 'Office' spinoff, ''Variety'', 12 June 2008.