External links
- Nimesh Patel on the IMDb
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Nimesh Patel | |
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| Born | Nimesh Patel 1986 (age 38–39) Parsippany, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Education | New York University (B.S.) |
| Occupation | Stand-up comedian • television writer |
| Years active | 2009–present |
| Spouse | Amy Havel Patel (m. 2020) |
| Children | 1 [1] |
Nimesh S. Patel [2] (born 1986) is an American comedian and television writer. In 2017, he became the first Indian American writer on Saturday Night Live . [3] [4]
Nimesh Patel was born in Parsippany-Troy Hills Township in the Morris County of New Jersey in 1986 into an immigrant Indian Gujarati Hindu family. His parents immigrated to the United States from India in the 1970s. His father first came to Newark, New Jersey as a 17 year old and worked as a cashier at a Macy's. He eventually opened a liquor store in a troubled neighborhood with heavy African-American organized crime and gang culture in Irvington, Essex County, often being robbed and also shot at. [5] [6]
Patel graduated from Parsippany Hills High School in 2004 [2] and moved to New York City to attend New York University, initially as a pre-med student. He has lived in the city ever since. He graduated with a degree in finance in 2008. [7]
After graduating, Patel began working during the day and performing standup at The Stress Factory by night. [6]
In 2015, he was doing standup in Greenpoint, Brooklyn when he was discovered by Chris Rock. Patel then joined Rock's writing team for the 88th Academy Awards ceremony.
In 2016, he was a finalist in Kevin Hart's Laugh Out Loud Network Pitch Panel at Just for Laughs ComedyPRO. [8]
Patel also wrote material for Hasan Minhaj's 2017 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner appearance. [9] In 2017, he began working as a full-time writer for Saturday Night Live, mainly writing jokes for Weekend Update . In 2018, Patel was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for his work on SNL. [3] He worked for SNL for just one season. [10]
Patel has appeared on @midnight , Comedy Knockout and Late Night with Seth Meyers . He has also featured as a comedy and politics panelist at the Foreign Affairs Symposium at Johns Hopkins University. [11]
On November 30, 2018, roughly twenty-four minutes into a comedy set, Patel was interrupted and asked to leave by the organizers of cultureSHOCK: Reclaim, an event for Asian representation hosted by Columbia University's Asian American Alliance. [12] [13] [14]
Patel was scheduled to participate in the 2025 Riyadh Comedy Festival, which received negative attention from organizations such as Human Rights Watch; Patel pulled before the start of the festival after "having a change of heart". [15]
Patel's main comedic influences are Dave Chappelle, Mitch Hedberg, Chris Rock, Larry David and Patrice O’Neal. [16]
Patel is a non practicing Hindu.[ citation needed ]
He used to live in Hell's Kitchen, Midtown Manhattan, but now resides in Brooklyn. He is a regular comic at the Comedy Cellar, a comedy club in Greenwich Village, Lower Manhattan.[ citation needed ]
He married Amy Havel in 2020. [17]
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