Nik Dodani | |
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 Dodani in 2018 | |
| Born | December 19, 1993 Dallas, Texas, U.S. [1] |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 2008–present |
| Known for | |
Nik Dodani (born December 19, 1993) is an American actor, writer, and comedian known for his roles as Zahid in the Netflix comedy-drama series Atypical , and Pat Patel in the revival of the popular CBS sitcom Murphy Brown . [2] [3]
Nik Dodani began his acting career in Phoenix-area community theater, his first notable role being Zero in a staged production of Holes based on the novel by Louis Sachar. [4] Dodani made his television debut in season 2 of HBO’s The Comeback starring Lisa Kudrow. [4]
On television, Dodani has also appeared in ABC's Big Sky , [4] Netflix's Trinkets , TBS's Angie Tribeca , Comedy Central's Idiotsitter , [5] Freeform's Kevin from Work , and NBC's The Player, among others. [6]
In film, Dodani has appeared in Netflix’s Alex Strangelove , [7] Joshua Leonard's independent film Dark Was the Night opposite Marisa Tomei and Charlie Plummer, [8] the Sony Pictures thriller Escape Room, [9] Hannah Marks' feature film Mark, Mary & Some Other People, [10] and Stephen Chbosky's film adaptation of Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen as Jared, who was re-conceived as "Jared Kalwani" to celebrate Dodani's casting. [11] [12] In July 2024, he appeared in Lee Isaac Chung's Twisters , a follow up to the 1996 film Twister . [13]
In March 2022, it was announced he would lead the New Line Cinema comedy The Parenting , opposite Brandon Flynn, Lisa Kudrow and Brian Cox. The release date is not yet publicly known. [14]
Dodani has voiced characters on numerous animated programs, including Nickelodeon's Big Nate , Disney's The Owl House and Hailey's On It! , and Disney Junior's Mira, Royal Detective . [15] [16] [17] [18] Dodani also voiced a character in the 2022 Disney animated film Strange World . [19]
He made his Broadway debut as Ogie in Waitress from October 19 to November 27, 2021. [20]
Dodani began performing stand-up comedy in 2015 and made his late-night stand-up comedy debut on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on September 28, 2018. [21]
In October 2018, it was announced that Dodani would write the screenplay for the film adaptation of Rakesh Satyal's novel Blue Boy. [22] In March 2022, Dodani launched his own production banner, Cosmic Pomegranate, with creative partner Joey Long. [14] [23]
In 2023, Dodani served as a co-producer of Life of Pi on Broadway, a play written by Lolita Chakrabarti as an adaptation of the novel by Yann Martel. Dodani served as an architect of The Power of Pi Project, "a first-of-its-kind effort from a Broadway production to connect with the AAPI community in New York and beyond." [24]
During the 2016 presidential election, Dodani was a producer for MoveOn, where he organized a political comedy tour called Laughter Trumps Hate. [25] He previously worked as a communications consultant at RALLY, an issue advocacy firm based in Hollywood, and as a graphic designer and student organizer on Elizabeth Warren's 2012 Senate campaign. [26]
In 2019, Dodani co-founded The Salon along with Bash Naran and Vinny Chhibber. The Salon is a forum for South Asian creatives in western creative arts. Dodani told The Hindu in 2021, "Our vision is to help the next generation of South Asian talent." [27]
Dodani was active in organizing the South Asian community in support of the Joe Biden 2020 presidential campaign and in support of Kamala Harris. [28] [29] He also played an active role in organizing other entertainers for the Black Lives Matter movement. [30] [31]
Dodani is of Indian descent and openly gay. [32] [33] He graduated from BASIS Scottsdale in 2011 and studied politics at Occidental College in Los Angeles. [34] [35]
| † | Denotes works that have not yet been released |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Other People | Ron | |
| The Good Neighbor | Sanjay | ||
| 2018 | Alex Strangelove | Blake | |
| Dark Was the Night | Seamus | ||
| 2019 | Escape Room | Danny Khan | |
| 2021 | Mark, Mary & Some Other People | Kyle | |
| Dear Evan Hansen | Jared Kalwani | ||
| 2022 | Strange World | Kardez | Voice role |
| 2024 | The A-Frame [36] | Rishi | |
| Twisters | Praveen | ||
| TBA | The Parenting † | Rohan | Post-production |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Living with Abandon | Paku | TV movie |
| 2014 | The Comeback | Harry | 2 episodes |
| Selfie | Bookstore Employee | 1 episode | |
| 2015 | Kevin from Work | Paul Garfunkle | 2 episodes |
| The Player | Solomon Desai | 1 episode | |
| 2017 | Idiotsitter | 1 episode | |
| 2017–2021 | Atypical | Zahid Raja | 37 episodes |
| 2018 | Murphy Brown | Pat Patel | 13 episodes |
| Angie Tribeca | CRISPIN_GLOVES0FF295 | 1 episode | |
| 2019–2020 | Trinkets | Chase | 6 episodes |
| 2021 | The Owl House | Gavin (voice) | Episode: "Through the Looking Glass Ruins" |
| 2022 | Big Nate | Randy Betancourt (voice) | Recurring cast |
| Mira, Royal Detective | Anish (voice) | Episode: "Mikku and Chikku's Hometown Mystery" | |
| 2023 | Hailey's On It! | Thad (voice) | Recurring cast |
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Alex Strangelove is a 2018 American romantic comedy film, written and directed by Craig Johnson and starring Daniel Doheny, Antonio Marziale and Madeline Weinstein.
The Prom is a 2020 American musical comedy film directed by Ryan Murphy from a screenplay by Chad Beguelin and Bob Martin, based on the 2018 Broadway musical of the same name by Martin, Beguelin, and Matthew Sklar. The film stars Meryl Streep, James Corden, Nicole Kidman, Keegan-Michael Key, Andrew Rannells, Ariana DeBose, Tracey Ullman, Kevin Chamberlin, Mary Kay Place, and Kerry Washington, and introduces Jo Ellen Pellman in her film debut as Emma Nolan. Logan Riley Hassel, Sofia Deler, Nico Greetham, and Nathaniel J. Potvin also appear in supporting roles.
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Never Have I Ever is an American comedy-drama television series starring Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, created by Mindy Kaling and Lang Fisher. Though it takes place in the San Fernando Valley, the show has been reported to be loosely based on Kaling's childhood experiences in the Boston area, while Kaling herself has said it is based "in the spirit of my childhood". It premiered on Netflix on April 27, 2020, and is about an Indian-American high school student dealing with the sudden death of her father and the bumpy journey through her last three years of high school. The series has received critical acclaim.
Dear Evan Hansen is a 2021 American coming-of-age musical film directed by Stephen Chbosky from a screenplay by Steven Levenson, based on the 2015 stage musical of the same name by Levenson, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. Ben Platt plays the title role, reprising the performance that he originated on stage six years earlier. The cast also includes Kaitlyn Dever, Amandla Stenberg, Nik Dodani, Colton Ryan, Danny Pino, Julianne Moore, and Amy Adams.
"Sincerely, Me" is a song from Act 1 of the 2015 musical Dear Evan Hansen, which premiered on Broadway in 2016. Benj Pasek and Justin Paul wrote both the music and lyrics to the song, whose title takes its name from the phrase with which the musical's main protagonist, Evan Hansen, ends his daily letters to himself.
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